A Greens councillor on medical leave to recover from serious facial injuries could be forced to step aside to deal with assault charges after an early morning brawl outside a nightclub, placing the country\u2019s first Greens-majority council on hold.<\/p>\n
Anab Mohamud, 35, announced last week that she would take extended unpaid leave from Yarra Council in Melbourne\u2019s inner suburbs. But the council watchdog, the Local Government Inspectorate, is going one step further in the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal.<\/p>\n
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Yarra councillor Anab Mohamud.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThe Local Government Inspectorate has made an application to VCAT to stand down Cr Anab Mohamud until proceedings in respect of the councillor\u2019s charges are finally determined,\u201d Chief Municipal Inspector Michael Stefanovic said, ahead of a hearing this week.<\/p>\n Cr Mohamud, who intends to clear her name by fighting the charges in court, is already taking medical leave until later in the year. She made the announcement on Wednesday, five days after informing mayor Gabrielle de Vietri, having just survived a vote of no confidence against her.<\/p>\n The matter has placed Australia\u2019s first Greens-majority council on hold nine months after its election amid much fanfare and lofty goals.<\/p>\n Five of the City of Yarra\u2019s nine councillors are Greens, and another two are socialists.<\/p>\n Greens councillors Amanda Stone (left), Edward Crossland, Sophie Wade and Gabrielle de Vietri outside Fitzroy Town Hall last year.<\/span>Credit:<\/span>Luis Enrique Ascui<\/cite><\/p>\n Cr de Vietri is a first-term councillor, as are three of her Greens colleagues. Only one Greens councillor, Cr Amanda Stone, who declined an interview, was sitting before last year.<\/p>\n In order to help locals through the pandemic, the council has poured $8 million into supporting ratepayers and residents. It is suffering a financial hit, like all local governments, with a $3.9 million deficit in 2021-22.<\/p>\n Cr de Vietri is proud of local infrastructure projects such as pocket parks, shared neighbourhood streets, tree-planting and steps to become carbon neutral.<\/p>\n But the Greens-led council has hit rocky times.<\/p>\n Cr Mohamud and her Greens colleagues had earlier rebuffed pressure from independent Herschel Landes and socialists Stephen Jolly and Bridgid O\u2019Brien for her to step aside while the charges were dealt with. Cr Landes maintains his attempt to have Cr Mohamud step aside was in the public interest, and the Greens had allowed party loyalties to get in the way.<\/p>\n He has otherwise been a friend to the Greens, whom he described as collegial and collaborative: \u201cI\u2019ll give them a good tick [of approval].\u201d<\/p>\n That view was not shared by Cr O\u2019Brien, who said decisions were made behind closed doors.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Greens all pledged in their campaign materials their support for collaboration and community consultation,\u201d Cr O\u2019Brien said.<\/p>\n \u201cIf it\u2019s a progressive council, they should be bringing all of us [independent councillors and the community] along for the journey,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Every Greens candidate who stood for election to the council last October was successful, cementing incremental gains made in the traditionally Labor heartland of inner-Melbourne suburbs including Richmond, Collingwood and Fitzroy.<\/p>\n Monash University senior lecturer in politics Zareh Ghazarian said inner-city electorates tended to be more affluent, \u201cpost-materialist\u201d worlds, unconstrained from immediate concerns about work, food and housing security.<\/p>\n The Greens took a beating for knocking back plans to hand over council land to create social housing under the state government\u2019s $5.3 billion \u201cbig housing build\u201d \u2013 criticism rejected by the party, which wants a community hub instead.<\/p>\n Cr Jolly, the longest-standing councillor at Yarra, also criticised the local Greens for an unpopular switch to fortnightly recycling, which was committed to under the previous council.<\/p>\n Cr Stephen Jolly has been critical of the Greens. <\/span>Credit:<\/span>Luis Ascui<\/cite><\/p>\n The Victorian government is forcing all councils to move to a four-bin system to reduce landfill, prompting several councils such as Yarra to cut back on collections.<\/p>\n And in March the council abandoned plans to charge community sports clubs more for using their sports grounds, after fierce public opposition.<\/p>\n Critics of the Greens, such as resident Adam Promnitz, founder of the Yarra Residents Collective, say the council has been characterised by \u201cvirtue-signalling motions\u201d that are outside the remit of local government. \u201cWhen they focus on local issues, they want to cut services like recycling and slug our local sporting clubs unreasonable fees,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n In February the mayor boasted that Richmond Town Hall was flying a flag for \u201caromantic\u201d people, people who don\u2019t experience romantic attraction.<\/p>\n Cr Jolly showed solidarity in May with Palestinians in a highly criticised motion that split the Greens. The motion passed (only Cr Landes and Greens Cr Edward Crossland voted against it) but the council later backtracked and expressed regret.<\/p>\n Cr Jolly said Yarra voters \u2013 some of the most politically active in the country, with 20 community groups coming together to campaign on the council\u2019s new planning rules this week \u2013 did not mind councillors tackling big issues as long as the basics of local government were accounted for.<\/p>\n He pointed out that progressive declarations were not new to Yarra. The council was the first in Victoria to ditch citizenship ceremonies on Australia Day, in a 2017 decision that earned blow-back from the federal government.<\/p>\n Cr de Vietri believes local government has a role to play in all corners of the community, including finding new ways to do \u201croads, rates and rubbish\u201d while leading social attitudes.<\/p>\n Local resident Peter \u201cPK\u201d Kaylor, who pushed to make outdoor dining permanent as part of the People of Gertrude Street campaign, commended the mayor for taking a stand on climate change to fill a gap in leadership from higher levels of government.<\/p>\n He has found all councillors and council officers to be positive and hardworking: \u201cThey, like members of the community, just want good outcomes for the place we live in.\u201d<\/p>\n Author Paddy Manning, who examined the party in his 2019 book Inside the Greens<\/em>, said inner Melbourne was probably one of the few places where the Greens were electable as a majority, having taken ground from Labor.<\/p>\n That made the politics highly contested and toxic, he said, with plenty of dirty tactics and a low threshold for \u201ca good old Greens bash\u201d in the media.<\/p>\n Manning said that although Yarra was Australia\u2019s first Greens-majority council, the party had shown responsible leadership in power-sharing deals \u2013 including during former prime minister Julia Gillard\u2019s minority government \u2013 and on the council.<\/p>\n \u201cAfter some five decades of the Greens in Australian politics … have the Greens stormed into power? Have they \u2018replaced the bastards\u2019? Not yet.\u201d<\/p>\n The Morning Edition newsletter is our guide to the day\u2019s most important and interesting stories, analysis and insights. <\/i><\/b>Sign up here<\/i><\/b>.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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