FRANKSTON councillors have publicly attacked Frankston MP Paul Edbrooke over comments he made in state parliament and on Facebook over their failure to correctly sign a new code of conduct.
All nine Frankston councillors were among more than 100 councillors across Victoria who faced expulsion from public office after administrative blunders while lodging paperwork to sign up to a state government-mandated code of conduct before a 4 July deadline.
State legislation to give councillors a new deadline of 22 February next year was passed to save them from expulsion ahead of municipal elections on 22 October.
Mr Edbrooke questioned why Frankston Council “cannot sign a document properly” and why council it should be let off the hook when he could be fined for being “two minutes late getting back to my car in a council car park” (“Council saved from sack”, The Times 22/8/16).
Councillors unanimously voted at the latest public Frankston Council meeting on 29 August to write to Mr Edbrooke and Premier Daniel Andrews “expressing our concerns about the negative comments he made in Parliament and also in the local press about council”.
Several councillors criticised Mr Edbrooke and at times got personal when complaining he did not consult council or give credit for projects such as the Robinsons Rd roundabout improvements originally flagged by council.
“He’s probably younger than every one of the councillors,” Cr Sandra Mayer said.
“He lives in Mt Eliza and I think he should show a little bit of respect for the nine people who actually live in the area who are grassroots and the level of government closest to the community.
“I have always respected him and I just wish he gave me the same courtesy and the council as well.”
Cr Colin Hampton, a member of the Labor Party for more than four decades, likened Mr Edbrooke’s criticism of council to that of former controversial Frankston Liberal turned independent MP Geoff Shaw.
Cr Hampton noted Mr Edbrooke has a margin of “less than 400 votes” and said continual criticism of council could see the Labor MP lose the seat of Frankston.
“If he keeps going this way he will not get back into parliament. I will be really peeved if that doesn’t happen because I’ve worked my bum off to get the Labor Party into power in this area and someone is starting to throw it away, as happened with Mr Shaw.”
Cr Glenn Aitken claimed a $4.9 million refurbishment of Wells St including the installation of new seats and “state of the art” street lights would provide better value for money than a state government planned $13 million revamp of Young St, also near Frankston train station.
“I have seen the plans for Young St – they’re underwhelming.”
Cr Aitken said he was puzzled at Mr Edbrooke’s critical stance on council.
“When he was elected I thought ‘he’s a nice looking young man, he’s very presentable. He’s fresh, he’s enthusiastic’ so I can’t for the life of me understand why he’s doing this to himself,” Cr Aitken said.
“He’s a nice looking young man, he’s got the world at his feet. Why would you consistently sling mud at the area you represent by way of criticism of the local government?”
Cr Darrel Taylor, a Liberal Party member, showed a rare moment of bipartisanship by agreeing with Cr Hampton’s comments about Mr Edbrooke and said the Labor MP used council as “a whipping boy”.
“Mr Edbrooke has been thrown out of parliament four times by his own Speaker but he wants to highlight the behaviour of individual councillors.
“He’s got to understand that he’s actually attacking his own city and it will reflect badly on him as a representative of his city if he continues to take a negative tone towards the city of Frankston.”
When contacted Mr Edbrooke said he is too busy working towards making Frankston a better place to spend time arguing with individual councillors.
“‘You don’t attract over $250 million worth of investment to your community without ruffling some feathers,” he said.
“The reality at state government level is that strong voices get things done.”
1 Comment
Frankston City council needs to get off their high horse and start looking after the community they were elected to represent.
You only have to cross the Frankston boarder to Kingston City to see the difference in each community.
Paul has stood up and achieved many things that Frankston council could have achieved but instead they play the man to save face.
They should have been sacked fot their lack of attention to detail. It says a lot about the way they govern in my view