East Gippsland Shire Mayor Cr Mendy Urie is one of 15 Victorian mayors to be appointed to the 2021 Local Government Mayoral Advisory Panel.
Cr Urie said she was delighted to receive the opportunity to contribute directly into such an important forum with the Minister for Local Government and her peers from across the state.
“I know East Gippsland has considerable knowledge to share and many lived experiences, and I look forward to using the platform to highlight some important messages from East Gippsland to our Victorian Government,” Cr Urie said.
Minister for Local Government Shaun Leane recently announced the 15 mayors who will meet four times this year to provide advice on a range of matters that impact local government. Chaired by the Minister, this year’s panel will present ideas and initiatives to benefit the local government sector and aid in recovery from the coronavirus pandemic.
Cr Urie will join mayors from Melbourne, Frankston, Port Phillip, Stonnington, Hume, Wyndham, Mornington, Greater Shepparton, Ballarat, Surf Coast, Macedon Ranges, Ararat, Indigo and Towong. Cr Urie is the only mayor on the panel from east of metropolitan Melbourne, while there are two representatives from the North-East (Indigo and Towong).
In applying, Cr Urie said the Minister wanted to hear about successful council or regional initiatives, policies or programs that may be of interest to state governments and other councils.
“I nominated two items, the first being our community’s healing and recovery from disaster, as East Gippsland Shire experienced in the Black Summer Bushfires,” Cr Urie said.
“The second was the experience of a large regional municipality progressing through an Environmental Effects Statement process. I look forward to, with the panel, identifying the possibilities for major review of the process to make it fairer for residents and ratepayers, in striving to achieve the best possible outcomes for our communities,” Cr Urie said.
The panel will meet for the first time on 21 April via videoconference.
Four regular meetings of the Local Government Mayoral Advisory Panel were held in 2020 and panel discussions included recovery from the 2019-20 bushfires, responding to the pandemic, implementation of the Local Government Act 2020, state and local government approaches to homelessness, dealing with the effect of the pandemic on tourism and harnessing the Government’s Working for Victoria initiative.
