The plan for the next term of the council has been unveiled with balancing the needs of the growing community and the test of financial sustainability marking the vision, despite concerns that community health and wellbeing are declining.
The current plan, made in 2021, is built around the challenge of managing the covid pandemic, but now that social distancing and face masks have fallen from the agenda, to be replaced by public debt and soaring cost of living, this new plan is a return to the core role of the council.
“Cardinia Shire Council, along with the broader local government sector, continues to face significant financial sustainability challenges, including rising costs and cost shifting from other levels of government,” the report said.
“Council remains committed to delivering the services, projects and infrastructure our community needs, while ensuring we remain financially sustainable in the long-term.”
The draft plan was created with the input of a community panel and will inform the council’s direction over the next term by incorporating rates, a long-term budget, a 10-year financial plan, an asset plan and a livability plan.
“As others have said, we are financially constrained. This sets out what we are going to commit ourselves to, what we are going to hold ourselves to and what we want to focus on,” Mayor Kowarzik said.
“Obviously, some more feedback to come, we welcome that and that’s great, but it’s a pretty cool thing for our most strategic document to be at this stage.”
The adoption of an updated Livability Plan 2017-2029, which informs health and wellbeing strategy, followed the successful motion for the new council plan.
Cr Nickell said the update provides little changes from its inception, while the data on local health and wellbeing was “appalling.”
“I don’t think this plan is quite mature and quite ready,” Cr Nickell said.
“Are we on the right trajectory? Are some of these measures going down, despite this plan being in place since 2017?”
Cr Paton also opposed the livability plan, saying the scale of the council’s involvement should be reassessed and that the red tape invading people’s lives should be cut.
“When we grew up, we paid a lot less tax and there was a lot less government in our lives telling us what to do each day,” she said.
“The community supported themselves, they supported each other.”
Mayor Kowarzik said in response that a livability plan is a requirement under state law and it must be adopted in some capacity.
Cr Nickell foreshadowed moving an amended plan, but the initial motion was carried.
Cardinia Shire is expected to grow by 40,000 over the next decade, meeting the increasing needs, as well as the increasing diversity of the community, which are two of the key objectives in the draft council plan.
Three other objectives include environmental conservation, financial sustainability and government leadership and accountability.
Across the five objectives, are many initiatives that the council will commit to over the next four years, from building library in Officer, establishing a youth advisory committee to continuing the campaign for a South East Airport.
The draft council plan and livability plan are now open for viewing and community feedback. You can do so at: creating.cardinia.vic.gov.au
