Council’s last minute freedom bid

Port Ward councillor Graeme Moore. Picture: KYRA GILLESPIE 187571_08

By Mitchell Clarke

A Cardinia Shire councillor will launch a last minute bid to free the community from tough Stage 4 metropolitan restrictions, despite acknowledging the chances of success are slim.

Deputy mayor Graeme Moore is set to front the final council meeting for the term in an attempt to grant council CEO Carol Jeffs with the authority to advocate to the State Government during the caretaker period.

Cr Moore will request the whole – or rural parts – of Cardinia Shire are removed from the metropolitan Melbourne title for the remainder of the roadmap out of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The Port Ward councillor – who represents the Shire’s rural localities including Kooweerup, Lang Lang, Bunyip, Nar Nar Goon and Garfield – said he wanted to see if the council could find some sort of resolve.

“The basis behind this notice of motion is to support (Narracan MP) Gary Blackwood in his plight to push for a fairer deal for our residents,” Cr Moore told the Gazette.

“In my position as a councillor, there’s not much power or control I have over the decision that has already been made.

“It’s a difficult situation but the greatest thing I can do for my residents is to back them and show that I support them. This is all we can do. I wish I could do more but I can’t. It’s very frustrating.”

The former mayor acknowledged the notice of motion was “probably too late”, but said he was leaving the fight to the state members to rally through proper channels.

When asked if he thought the local MPs had done enough to support the community, he said: “I think they have. I don’t think they could do much either because the Premier is holding that ‘trump card’.”

Cr Moore added the situation had flung Cardinia’s contentious boundary back into the spotlight.

“Where do you draw the line in a place like Cardinia? The only way to fix it is to change the whole metropolitan shire into regional.

“They won’t do that though, because of the growth corridor in Pakenham and Officer, so you’d have to essentially divide the whole council in half and make it two councils.”

He said it could be “quite feasible” to look into move Cardinia’s rural localities past Nar Nar Goon into Baw Baw Shire, but acknowledged that could create its own headaches.

“Baw Baw could become too big, so you’d have to take some towns of their boundary and give it to Latrobe, and it’d just keep on going,” Cr Moore explained.

“This is a pandemic, and hopefully, this will never happen again and we’ll never have to have these conversations in future.”