CALL TO ACTION! HOLDING LOCAL COUNCILS ACCOUNTABLE!! All L | VICTORIA FREEDOM KEEPERS

CALL TO ACTION! HOLDING LOCAL COUNCILS ACCOUNTABLE!!

All Local Councils will have their service principles and feedback/complaints procedures set out on their website. We encourage everyone to use these procedures to the fullest extent possible to hold Local Councils accountable on this issue. Whether you attend Council offices in person, write to them, email them or call them, their service policies will require that they must respond to your query or complaint.

Here's how you can participate :

•Attend your Local Council offices in person and request some answers. The restriction in the latest Directions preventing unvaccinated people from entering community facilities does not extend to people entering Council offices for Council business. If it's an option, get a group of like-minded people together and attend Council offices at the same time to make a bigger impact. (Just make sure you comply with social distancing requirements, be respectful and courteous at all times and be mindful that there are laws against deliberately hindering or obstructing local authorities in the conduct of their duties).

•Write to or email your Local Council – their contact details will be on their website and they are obliged to respond;

•Phone your Local Council and ask to speak to someone who can address your concerns. Once again, the Council will be under an obligation to get someone to return your call. Feel free to call in as often as you like until you receive answers satisfactory to you.

•Submit an FOI request – if you request specific information from your Council and they do not provide it to you, you can lodge a Freedom of Information request and the Council will beobligated to respond to that request in accordance with the Freedom of Information Act 1982 (Vic). Information on this process will be on the Council’s website and at www.ovic.vic.gov.au.

•Initiate any processes set out in Council's complaints procedure – if you are not getting
satisfactory responses from your Council, check the process under your Council's complaint handling policy and make sure you exercise any rights you have under that policy, such as to escalate to the Mayor, request an external review or complain to the Ombudsman.

•Attend Council Meetings to voice your concerns. Once again, Councils cannot exclude unvaccinated members of the community from attending Council offices.

However, the Local Government Act was amended last year to allow Council to limit or exclude public attendance at meetings and offer live streaming access, in which case questions to the Council may need to be submitted in advance. These provisions remain in force until 27 April 2022.

See further information about local council initiative @skipaustralia link below

https://skipaustralia.org/wp/2021/11/21/are-local-councils-normalising-discrimination/