New councillors will be elected to the City of Yarra in October 2024.
We encourage every voter to meet the candidates in their ward, read their websites and flyers, and form their own view as to who best aligns with their values. However, we know it can be difficult to sort through all the campaign material – if you’d like some guidance on how much each candidate will support a more beautiful, liveable, and accessible city, read on.
We have invited candidates to complete the Streets People Love pledge and survey, as well as the more detailed Streets Alive Yarra survey, and to clarify their policies on transport, open space, and street design. We also looked at their voting records (if they’re standing again) and what they’ve published on their flyers, websites and social media. Over the last four years Streets Alive Yarra has campaigned on transport and street design; governance, transparency and community engagement [a, b, c, d]; and financial sustainability [a, b, c]; and we have referred to all those issues as we assessed candidates.
Our current assessments are shown below, and are subject to change as new information arises. Scores range from two green ticks (best score), to one orange circle (neutral), to two red crosses (worst score). We welcome feedback from candidates if they feel their policies have been misrepresented – please contact us on info@streets-alive-yarra.org with evidence of your street-friendly and best-practice policies, and your track record in advocacy of walking, biking, trees, and place making.
New ward boundaries will be used for this election – the wards are smaller and each ward returns only one councillor. The Victorian Electoral Commission has published a map that can help you to find your ward:
Fitzroy (MacKillop Ward)
✅ ✅
Has signed the Streets People Love pledge, answered yes to the Streets People Love and Streets Alive Yarra survey questions, is aligned with Sophie Wade and Edward Crossland – who have strong voting records on active transport, and is the Streets Alive Yarra champion for Victoria Parade
✅
Has signed the Streets People Love pledge, and answered yes to the Streets People Love survey questions
Renee Smith
🟠
Hasn’t responded to our survey, little information regarding policy on walking, biking, trees, and place making
❌ ❌
Hasn’t responded to our survey, voted against the Elizabeth Street bike lanes and the Charlotte Street pocket park; spreads misinformation about council finances, council governance, and flood mapping
Collingwood (Hoddle Ward)
✅ ✅
Has signed the Streets People Love pledge, answered yes to the Streets People Love and Streets Alive Yarra survey questions, and voted for the Elizabeth Street bike lanes and the Charlotte Street pocket park
🟠
Has signed the Streets People Love pledge, answered yes to most of the Streets People Love survey, answered yes to some of the Streets Alive Yarra survey, but supports costly parking mandates
🟠
Hasn’t responded to our survey, little information regarding policy on walking, biking, trees, and place making
Sharie Harrold
🟠
Hasn’t responded to our survey, little information regarding policy on walking, biking, trees, and place making
❌
Hasn’t responded to our survey, supports costly parking mandates; spreads misinformation about council finances and governance
S. Geminder
❌ ❌
Paper candidate for Michael Glynatsis
❌ ❌
Hasn’t responded to our survey, voted against the Elizabeth Street bike lanes and the Charlotte Street pocket park
Abbotsford (Langridge Ward)
✅ ✅
Has signed the Streets People Love pledge, answered yes to the Streets People Love and Streets Alive Yarra survey questions, and is the Streets Alive Yarra champion for Johnston Street
✅
Has signed the Streets People Love pledge, answered yes to the Streets People Love and Streets Alive Yarra survey questions
Ha Tran
🟠
Hasn’t responded to our survey, little information regarding policy on walking, biking, trees, and place making
❌
Hasn’t responded to our survey, little information regarding policy on walking, biking, trees, and place making; spreads misinformation about council governance and flood mapping
Richmond North (Melba Ward)
✅ ✅
Has signed the Streets People Love pledge, answered yes to the Streets People Love and Streets Alive Yarra survey questions, and is a long term community volunteer and advocate for active transport
✅
Has signed the Streets People Love pledge, and answered yes to the Streets People Love survey questions
Mubarek Imam
✅
Has signed the Streets People Love pledge, and answered yes to the Streets People Love survey questions
🟠
Hasn’t responded to our survey, little information regarding policy on walking, biking, trees, and place making
❌
Poor parking policies (states “we all need to park somewhere”); wants “back to basics” and “roads, rates, rubbish”, says they will listen to the community
❌
Hasn’t responded to our survey, little information regarding policy on walking, biking, trees, and place making, wants to remove parking fees
❌
Has declined to respond to our survey because “agreeing with these statements…may conflict with being able to provide balanced, fact based and inclusive representation to all constituents if elected”; spreads misinformation about council governance and flood mapping
Christine Maynard
❌ ❌
Hasn’t responded to our survey, little information regarding policy on walking, biking, trees, and place making, poor policies on parking (wants “adequate and improved parking options”); has been “retired” by the VEC after failing to complete the required candidate training
Richmond West & Cremorne (Lennox Ward)
✅ ✅
Has signed the Streets People Love pledge, answered yes to the Streets People Love and Streets Alive Yarra survey questions, and is aligned with Sophie Wade and Edward Crossland – who have strong voting records on active transport
✅
Has signed the Streets People Love pledge, answered yes to the Streets People Love survey questions
🟠
Has declined to respond to our survey because it “would deny my responsibility as an elected official under Australian Common Law which states I am beholden to act fairly and fight natural bias when making decisions that affect the rights and interests of others”; little information regarding policy on walking, biking, trees, and place making
❌
Has signed the Streets People Love pledge, but opposes 30 km/h and reallocating space for protected bike lanes
❌ ❌
Hasn’t responded to our survey, opposes the Charlotte Street pocket park and 30 km/h zones; wants lower cost parking permits and parking meters free after 6:30 pm
❌ ❌
Hasn’t responded to our survey, opposes the Charlotte Street pocket park and higher parking fees for truckzillas, wants lower cost parking permits; spreads misinformation about council finances and council governance
❌ ❌
“I will NOT be filling out any surveys or taking pledges that are leading or push for commitments”; opposes the Charlotte Street pocket park, 30 km/h zones, protected bike lanes, and the removal of costly parking mandates; spreads misinformation about council finances and flood mapping
Richmond East & Burnley (Boulevard Ward)
✅ ✅
Has signed the Streets People Love pledge, answered yes to the Streets People Love and Streets Alive Yarra survey questions, and is aligned with Sophie Wade and Edward Crossland – who have strong voting records on active transport
✅
Has signed the Streets People Love pledge, and answered yes to the Streets People Love survey questions
🟠
Little specific policy on walking, biking, trees, and place making; says they will listen to the community
🟠
Hasn’t responded to our survey, little information regarding policy on walking, biking, trees, and place making
Campbell Watkins
🟠
Hasn’t responded to our survey, little information regarding policy on walking, biking, trees, and place making
❌ ❌
“I will not be responding to the questionnaire”, “…may conflict with my ability to provide balanced and inclusive representation to all constituents if elected”; opposes the Charlotte Street pocket park and has opposed pro-cycling initiatives (e.g. separated bike lanes on Coppin Street); spreads misinformation about council finances, council governance, and flood mapping
Clifton Hill & Fairfield & Alphington (Yarra Bend Ward)
✅ ✅
Has signed the Streets People Love pledge, answered yes to the Streets People Love and Streets Alive Yarra survey questions, and is aligned with Sophie Wade and Edward Crossland – who have strong voting records on active transport
Leonie Gnieslaw
✅
Has signed the Streets People Love pledge, answered yes to the Streets People Love survey, and states their support for Streets Alive Yarra’s work
✅
Has emailed a response to our survey, little specific policy on walking, biking, trees, and place making
❌ ❌
“I will not be completing your survey”, voted against the Elizabeth Street bike lanes and the Charlotte Street pocket park
Fitzroy North (Nicholls Ward)
✅ ✅
Has signed the Streets People Love pledge, answered yes to the Streets People Love survey questions, and is aligned with Sophie Wade and Edward Crossland – who have strong voting records on active transport
✅ ✅
Has signed the Streets People Love pledge, and answered yes to the Streets People Love survey questions; support for active transport, attended the screening of “Motherload”; long track record of community work
✅
Has signed the Streets People Love pledge, and answered yes to the Streets People Love survey questions
Remy Larocca
❌
Hasn’t responded to our survey, little information regarding policy on walking, biking, trees, and place making; spreads misinformation about council finances
❌
Hasn’t responded to our survey, little information regarding policy on walking, biking, trees, and place making; spreads misinformation about council finances and flood mapping
Princes Hill & Carlton North (Curtain Ward)
✅ ✅
Has signed the Streets People Love pledge, answered yes to the Streets People Love survey questions, and voted for the Elizabeth Street bike lanes and the Charlotte Street pocket park
🟠
Hasn’t responded to our survey, little information regarding policy on walking, biking, trees, and place making
🟠
Hasn’t responded to our survey, little information regarding policy on walking, biking, trees, and place making
❌
Hasn’t responded to our survey, little information regarding policy on walking, biking, trees, and place making; spreads misinformation about council finances and council governance
❌
Hasn’t responded to our survey, little information regarding policy on walking, biking, trees, and place making; spreads misinformation about council finances
Explanatory notes
Misinformation about council finances
Council finances are an important issue for Streets Alive Yarra because investments in safer and better streets can only be made over the long term if the council is financially sustainable.
Stating the percentage of council rates that is spent on salaries may be factual, but is misinformation because the relevant metric is the percentage of the total budget (which is a much lower value). Even worse, when claiming that the percentage is high compared with other councils, it ignores that the same service can be delivered by either insourcing (appearing in the budget as salaries) or outsourcing (appearing in the budget as a contract). An honest discussion about the influence that councillors can have on reducing staffing costs would involve candidates stating which services they propose to cut.
Declining to update an article that raises fear, uncertainty, and doubt (FUD) about how council uses interest earnings (on a large state government grant) is misinformation, because council clearly stated that is has retained the interest for the specified project.
- Stephen Jolly: “top heavy, upside down pyramid”, “salaries eating up almost 80% of rates”
- Brielle Pope: “78% of Yarra rates go to staff and management salaries”, “This leaves little room in the budget for the essential services and maintenance that keep our neighborhoods [sic] running smoothly.”
- Peter Razos: “Yarra’s wages bill is a … worrying 77 percent of rates and charges”, “bloated senior management”
- Sharon Harrison: “Council’s employee costs as a percentage of rates revenue are 78%. This is significantly higher than other Councils”
- Peter Sprott: “The council currently spends over 80% of its budget on top-heavy administration.”
- Alan Tse: “Did you know that the City of Yarra spends close to 80% of rates revenue on wages, compared to our neighbouring councils who spend around 60%?”, “Management is what needs to be cut”
- Remy Larocca: “bloated council salaries”
- Theresa Saldanha: “bloated council trying to justify their excessive head count”
- Kenneth Gomez: “Where Has The Interest Earned On $12.9M Gone?”
Misinformation about council governance
Council governance is an important issue for Streets Alive Yarra because we, as a community, use representative democracy, supported by good governance, to work out how to manage our city, including how much space and budget we allocate to active transport.
Stating that council is undemocratic is misinformation because council is clearly democratically elected every four years, and complies with all requirements of the Local Government Act such as community participation at council meetings, community engagement on important issues, and transparency. Council even used a deliberative engagement panel to help define the principles to be used when reviewing council services. Similarly, claiming that the new meeting schedule (once a month) is undemocratic, is misinformation because it’s best practice (and used by many other municipalities) and because it’s actually more democratic, because it opens up more time for councillors to meet with the community, in more welcoming, less formal (non-meeting) environments.
Complaining that council often appears in the media, insinuating that it’s owing to poor governance, is misinformation because dissatisfied candidates create the outrage by complaining to media, and then refer to the media as evidence, which is a circular argument.
Claiming that trials are specifically done to circumvent community participation, is misinformation because trials deliver the opposite, they enable the community to see and experience the proposal.
- Stephen Jolly: “four years of often being at war with its residents”, “reverse the anti-democratic changes of the past four years”
- Evangeline Aston: “hypocritical, disorganised and generally considered one of the worst councils in Australia”, “no more bad press because the council stops doing things that attract bad press!”
- Brielle Pope: shared and agreed with the above statement from Evangeline Aston
- Victoria Chipperfield: “We are seeing it as an erosion of basic democratic process”
- Peter Razos: “council disregards fundamental principles of transparency and input from residents”
- Sharon Harrison: “a return to democracy where residents are consulted, have a right to a say and their concerns are heard”
- Peter Sprott: “We have had four years of controversy”, “access to council has become more and more difficult. I want to make it easier for the community to have a say, starting by returning to fortnightly council meetings”, “Your council is a democratic institution, eroded in recent years”
- Theresa Saldanha: “Yarras [sic] trials are specifically done to circumvent community participation”
Misinformation about flood mapping
Flood mapping is an important issue for Streets Alive Yarra because flooding on our streets impacts on how people are able to move around our city, and how streets are designed to cope.
The state government flood enquiry report explained the urgent need to update flood mapping statewide, and to use this as a basis for revisions to planning schemes, such as via Special Building Overlays (SBOs), which inform prospective property purchasers or developers of the need to take likely flood levels into consideration when planning new buildings, and thus minimise the likelihood of future flood damage.
Stating that council’s proposed revisions to flood mapping are due to poor drain maintenance is misinformation because the state government flood report clearly states that “it is undeniable that climate change is intensifying weather events and increasing the risks we face living in this country ‘of droughts and flooding rains’.”, noting that “The increased flood risk identified by the new modelling will clearly be challenging for many in local communities to receive.” This isn’t an issue with council’s maintenance of drains, this is an issue with climate-change induced severe rainfall events that overwhelm even the best-maintained drainage system.
The state government report states “For government, one of the most critical roles going forward is accurately and honestly informing communities about risk”. Recommendation 18 states “that the Victorian Government introduce amendments…so that planning and other authorities must address climate change at all levels of the planning process.” The council officer report (9 July 2024) reflects this, stating “Council has a number of regulatory obligations regarding flood resilience. In order to fulfil these obligations and improve the community’s flood resilience, updated flood modelling and mapping has been prepared and a comprehensive way forward has been proposed to enable this to be embedded in decision making and advice to the community.”
Stating that the SBO will increase insurance premiums is also misinformation, as insurers already undertake independent flood modelling to assess risk and assist in setting premiums, and don’t use the SBO for that purpose.
- Stephen Jolly: “Insurance premiums will go through the roof, property values will drop and landlords will pass on costs to renters”, “rezone affected homes and then walk away”, “handball the problem to residents”
- Kenneth Gomez: “Council plans to re-zone these homes as subject to FLOOD RISK. HIGHER risk means HIGHER insurance costs”, “because council can’t be bothered or can’t afford to fix these drains, suddenly it becomes our responsibility”
- Sharon Harrison: “This flood risk is not from the Yarra River, but from Councils failing stormwater infrastructure”, “For many this overlay will mean an increase in insurance costs and a decrease in property values”, “pushing responsibility onto residents”
- Evangeline Aston: “This is the council’s way of shifting the risk of flooding from the council to property owners and residents”, “Shifting the risk to property owners has financial implications, like lowering property values, making renovations more expensive, increasing insurance premiums”
- Victoria Chipperfield: “Flood mapping that lowers the value of your properties and increases your insurance”, “putting the responsibilities and expenses on residents and rate payers”
- Theresa Saldanha: “Significant impact on property value & insurance”
Streets People Love pledge and survey
Streets Alive Yarra is part of a Victoria wide campaign – Streets People Love – focussing on the council elections in October, comprising local groups in each municipality – and who invite candidates to pledge to allocate budget and street space to build streets people love.
Streets Alive Yarra detailed survey
Streets Alive Yarra has more detailed survey, to help determine candidate’s support for walking, biking, trees, and place making. Candidates can download the image, tick the boxes, and email their response to info@streets-alive-yarra.org. We’re also happy to receive longer written responses.
Election advertising
Streets Alive Yarra plans to advertise to encourage people to vote for candidates who support a beautiful, liveable, and accessible city, with 30 km/h zones, access for people with disabilities, safety for families, and revitalised shopping streets:
Authorised by J Lawrence PO Box 4223 Richmond East 3121. First published 11th August 2024. Page will be updated through the election campaign.