Members Statement: Local Government Election
Mr HIBBINS (Prahran): I just want to firstly congratulate everyone across Victoria who put up their hand and stood in our local government elections. It was obviously a very tough year to be a candidate, but it is so important that people have taken an interest in our local government and people have put their hand up to represent their communities, so congratulations to everyone who put their hand up and especially to those who were successful.
For the Greens it was a very successful local government election, with a record 36 Greens councillors elected right across the state—in the city, in the suburbs, in regional areas. There are new Greens councillors in areas like Boroondara, Manningham and Shepparton. We got a majority of councillors in the City of Yarra possibly for the first time ever. In my patch it was good to see Mike Scott and Polly Morgan elected to Stonnington council, where I was previously a councillor, and Sarah Barton ran a really strong campaign too. Kat Copsey and Tim Baxter succeeded in re-election in Port Phillip and Olivia Ball and Rohan Leppert in the City of Melbourne—really strong campaigns pushing for local climate action, for reviving our local shopping strips and for protecting our local public services against austerity.