TWiSK #408

More local laughs @ MICF
Duck Duck Goose @ Theatre Works
Brian Cadd @ Memo
Augie March @ Espy Gershwin
Nina Ferro & The Gold Standard @ George Lane
and more …

Independent Waste Review
The Verdict
Services still below par
Contractor says it may have underquoted
Report says “this represents a risk to future services delivery”
-/\-
Both Mayor and Deputy Mayor unavailable for March Citizenship Ceremony
So CEO wears ‘mayor-like’ robes at ceremony

Local Laughs @ Taphouse

Mondays until 15 April, 8.30
“A hand-picked selection of local comedy treats + a sprinkling of the Festival’s finest” $25/$22
Tix 
184 Carlisle Street
Duck Duck Goose @ Theatre Works
Wednesday 3 April – Saturday 13 April, 7.30 pm
Duck Duck Goose follows the story of Chris, a young Irish man living in Galway, who meets Jane in the aftermath of a house party.
Jane confronts Chris with an allegation of sexual assault against best friend Davey. $45/$20
Tix

Caliko (Single Launch) + Paul Greene @ George Lane
Thursday 4 April, 7.00 pm – 10.45 pm
Caliko are a collaboration with Vanessa Jade Muir and Paul Greene, based in Nowra on the NSW South Coast.
Tix
Elvis Costello & The Imposters @ Palais
Thursday 4 April
Unfortunately sold out.
But you might get lucky and see Elvis in St Kilda.
Aaron Chen Funny Garden @ Palais
Friday 5 April – Sunday 14 April, various evening times
“Life is bristling with thorns, and I know no other remedy than to cultivate one’s garden.” Voltaire
“You are allowed to put whatever you like in your blurb. It doesn’t even have to describe the show.” Aaron
$39+
Tix 

Brian Cadd ‘Dream Train’ @ Memo
Friday 5 April, 7 pm
Brian Cadd, Australian country-rock pioneer, reflects on his musical journey with the impending release of his latest album, “Dream Train.” $65
Tix 

Comedy Gold @ The National
Fridays 5 April, 12 April and 19 April, 7.30 pm
Follow the fairy-lights to their intimate cabaret studio. $29/$22
Tix 

Sunshine Tip – Vinyl Launch @ George Lane
Friday 5 April, 7.00 pm – 10.45 pm
Sunshine Tip are a Melbourne-based acoustic trio playing modern, dark, alt-country originals. David Bowers (guitars, vocals), Dee Hannan (mandolin, vocals) and Alice Garner (cello) bring to George Lane their evocative, sometimes melancholic but always catchy songs, sparsely and imaginatively arranged and featuring sweet interweaving vocal harmonies.
Tix
Monthly Market @ Christ Church
Saturday 6 April, 9 am – 2 pm weather permitting
Sausage sizzle, cold drinks, books, plants and clothes.
14 Acland Street

Jeff Jenkins & The Heartstarters @ George Lane Matinee sessions
Saturday 6 April, 3 pm – 6 pm
Performing original songs from their new album Boy Meets Girl.
Tix

Augie March @ Espy Gershwin
Saturday 6 April, 4 pm
Winners of the AMP, Hottest 100, various APRA gongs. With Marty Frawley Trio $50
Tix

The Cambodian Space Project with Jack Howard’s Epic Horns @ Memo
Saturday 6 April, 7 pm
This extraordinary Phnom Penh based band team up with local legend Jack Howard (Epic Brass, Hunters & Collectors, Midnight Oil) for the launch of an exciting new musical collaboration. $60
Tix 
Listen to interview with CSP Founder Julien Poulson with Phillip Adams on ABC LNL

Current Joys @ Prince
Saturday 6 April, 7.30 pm
This event is a licensed all ages event running from 7:30pm to 10:30pm.$87.65
Tix
Free Sunday Sizzle @ Pride
Sunday 7 April , 12 pm – 5 pm
An afternoon of drinks and snags on the barbecue on the Pride Centre Rooftop. Plus the Gay Stuff Markets downstairs in the Forum, showcasing unique wares from queer makers. Free

Steve Romig ‘Songs & Stories’, A Retrospective @ Memo
Sunday 7 April, 3 pm
His band for this show is packed with Australian music industry royalty – Mike Brady (Up There Cazaly), Sarah Maclaine (GMA), Roger McLachlan (LRB, Stars), Ronnie Peers (Stylus, Renee Geyer), and his son, Ernest Aines. $30
Tix 

Nina Ferro & The Gold Standard – Single Release Party @ George Lane
Sunday 7 April, 3 pm – 7 pm
Nina Ferro is a multi award-winning soul singer, songwriter, session and recording artist with a powerful, evocative voice.
Class act.
Tix

The Breadmakers @ Espy
Sunday 7 April, 6:30 PM
Rhythm’n’Blues ravers and unlikely heroes on the Fitzroy/Collingwood indie scene in the ‘90s. Free.
Tix
The Comedy Crawl: St Kilda (UK) @ Ellora (the first stop)
Saturdays and Sundays until 21 April, 1.30 pm start
Five comedians. Four bars. The most hilarious pub crawl in town…
Ellora (the first stop) will be open from 1:30pm.
Tix 
Joel Temperly 110% Jokes @ St Kilda Cellar & Wine Bar
Nightly until Saturday 20 April, 7 pm and 9.30 pm (not Mondays)
Joel Temperly has some jokes he would very much like to tell you. Jokes about his hometown, old job, living situation, girlfriend, family and a whole lot of other stuff. He is a bitter Melbournian who likes his Melbourne Bitter (or any beer you have really, no big deal). $18.50 / $14
Tix 
45 Fitzroy Street

Port Phillip CEO (right) coincidently captured in an Instagram post by local MP

No Mayor or Deputy Mayor available,
so CEO dons the robes at citizenship ceremony

When Nina Taylor State MP for Albert Park posted this picture on Instagram taken at the Port Phillip Citizenship Ceremony on 21 March, she probably had no inkling of the controversy it might cause.
An eagle-eyed reader asked why the Port Phillip CEO Chris Carroll (pictured in the background in special robes) was wearing the robes at the ceremony?
Robes make ceremony special says Mayor
Mayor Heather Cunsolo replied to the question with this reply:
“The Deputy Mayor and myself were attending other events on the night of the most recent citizenship ceremony.
“As the CEO is a presiding officer option for citizenship ceremonies, it was suggested he wear ceremonial (not mayoral) robes for the event as we know from our community and conferees that an official look makes the event feel even more special and makes for great photos.”
“Our Governance officers have confirmed we do not have a policy or protocol dictating how the robes are to be used. Some Council’s in Victoria specifically limit the use of their robes to the Mayor, but CoPP does not.”
“The use of the robes in no way implies the roles of mayor or CEO are interchangeable and any suggestion to this effect is incorrect.”
“The actual Mayoral Robes are under lock and key as historic artefacts. The robes worn by the CEO are essentially for use by the presiding officer of Citizenship ceremonies, which the CEO was on this occasion.”
Grand Prix reception trumps citizenship ceremony
 As it turned out, the other event (for the Mayor) was the glittering, 600 guest Formula 1 Rolex Australian Grand Prix 2024 Reception at the Victorian Governor’s House.
We haven’t been able to confirm the other event for Deputy Mayor Louise Crawford.
But there’s a sting in the tale (sic)
Who took the photo that started this tricky story?
Nina Taylor, MLA Albert Park, who was obviously at the citizenship ceremony.
TWiSK is prepared to wager that Ms Taylor was also on the Governor’s guest list.
TWiSK contacted Nina for comment and she did not reply by deadline.
TWiSK also contacted Chris Carroll, but he politely declined to offer a quote.

Independent Waste Review released
The Verdict

Mayor responds to TWiSK questions

Council has released two independent reports examining the chaotic transition to a new garbage contractor in July last year.
While the reports find the selection process was fair and impartial, the findings document many disturbing shortfalls, including:
Lack of attention to detail by council, senior executives and senior officers;
A problematic ‘she’ll be right’ attitude to a critical service;
An obvious lack of senior skills to manage both the procurement and transition;
The rate of bin fails remains higher than with previous contractor;
Price was considered as the major deciding factor, but the new contractor has said the staffing levels required are unsustainable;
And bizarrely and astoundingly …
Despite the City of Melbourne owning one of the bidders (the successful candidate), an employee of the CoM (and former CoPP employee) was a voting member of the selection panel.
Mayor responds to TWiSK questions
The reports were added to the Council website on Wednesday 27 March and only promoted on social media.
Council did not distribute a media release (as would be considered normal practice).
With Easter looming, that gave TWiSK (and any other interested parties) just hours to digest the report and submit questions.
Here are our questions and the responses from Mayor Heather Cunsolo in full:
Q: The apology for the service disruption is appreciated but it is old news, you’ve said that before. The bin fail is an outwardly visible symptom of internal issues. Is there a comment from you on the failings outlined in these reports, such as the chain of lack of attention to detail that spanned the councillors, senior leadership and responsible officers?
A: “Council welcomes the reports into this situation, in which we didn’t meet our own and community expectations and is developing a comprehensive response plan to ensure that the organisation, at all levels, embeds the learnings and that we continue to deliver the wide range of high-quality services that our community rightly expects and deserves.”
Q Please provide detail on what this means: “There have been several changes to responsibilities, personnel, and resourcing.” This is euphemistic. What were/are the consequences in terms of employment?
A; “There have been several changes across the organisation including amending the responsibility of general manager and senior officer roles to provide greater focus on procurement, contract management, governance, and risk. We have also recruited new staff into key positions with experience and expertise in waste, project and contract management and established new positions to provide greater focus on managing our high-value service contracts. Some changes already made have included the recruitment of an experienced Executive Manager of Waste & City Maintenance. We are also currently recruiting other key roles.”
Q: No press release? Please explain.
A: “Providing the outcome of the waste review was always intended to be focused on our community. We have been fully transparent, including a statement from myself and our CEO and provided a link to the reports via a Facebook post. We have also shared the reports with other councils.”
Council statement 
Links to reports
Cause Analysis and Recommendations Report  | Probity Audit Report

Verbatim highlights from the reports

 

Failed bin collections remain 2 times higher than with previous contractor

The extent of the problem …
“Immediately on the introduction of the new services the number of bins not collected materially increased. Based on monthly performance reports, the number of bins not collected increased to approximately 6,900 bins not collected in the first month, compared with 394 bins not collected in the month immediately prior.”
The ongoing problem …
“At the time of writing this Report missed bins have fallen from over 1,800 per week (first week of contract), to 179 per week. While services have improved, missed bins remain higher than before-services commencement.”
Broader concerns …
“In addition to the missed bins, the Council has informed [the report authors] of other areas it considers Citywide’s performance does not meet the requirements of the new Waste Services Contract.
“These areas were:
over-compaction of recycling; insufficient plant and equipment;
the collection of strip shopping centre carboard outside of designated hours;
notifying the contract manager in the event of service disruptions;
accommodating reasonable requests by the contract manager or users of services with a positive and proactive attitude and the positioning of bins after they had been emptied.
“At the time of writing this report, these claims have not been substantiated nor accepted by Citywide.”
She’ll be right attitude …
“Transition was treated as a Business as Usual (BAU) activity without adequate governance oversight typically needed to manage a complex transition.”
Missing maps …
“A critical control in the transition period was Citywide’s contractual obligation to submit route maps for review six weeks prior to service commencement. This did not occur and was not escalated by either party. The Council first received the route maps after services had commenced and they were found to be materially deficient.”
Finders were not minders …
“The Waste Transformation Procurement Project that managed project delivery during the procurement phase did not continue into the transition phase and transition was treated as a Business-as-Usual activity.”
Processes were not followed …
“While the Council has a project management assurance program in place, project controls, in particular planning, project management, risk management and reporting were not adequately utilised to support project delivery or governance needs.”
Price was the key factor …
“The high weighting to price meant that any issues in capability, experience or transition were masked in the overall tender score. The sustainability of pricing was not adequately considered in the evaluation process.”
Price may not be sustainable …
“Pricing was a key factor in the Council’s decision to appoint Citywide. Its overall pricing was assessed to be materially lower than the other tenders received. The level of due diligence conducted by the Council on pricing did not include consideration of whether the waste services could be delivered at the tendered price and whether the proposed unit rates were sustainable.
“Following the emergency response and stabilisation of services, Citywide has stated that current resourcing levels are above sustainable levels. Further testing of pricing may have been warranted to consider the initial tender’s sustainability.”
Big red flag … or is it a white flag?
“Citywide has put to the Council that, while the services have improved substantially, that
delivering the services at the current (improved) service level requires more people and vehicle resources than was anticipated in its tender and that continued delivery of the services at this level may be unsustainable.”
 City of Melbourne owns Citywide outright, yet ….
“Throughout the project, the Waste Transformation Procurement Project was impacted by internal resourcing capability and capacity constraints. It sought to address this issue through the use of specialist consultant appointments and through bringing in a waste operations specialist from the City of Melbourne Council.”

‘Progressives’ launch election policy

Progressive Port Phillip, the Green, Labor and independent candidate lobby group, launched their 2024 election policies at the Middle Park Bowling Club last Tuesday.
The meeting attracted about 100 supporters in a promising sign for the group’s 2024 effort to influence the Council elections scheduled for October.
The meeting heard motivational speeches from community members fired up by Council issues:
Justin Halliday pitched the importance of Council in supporting actions to address the climate emergency;
Laura Hill spoke of her involvement in saving three community-run early learning centres from closure by Council;
and Martin Kingham denounced the recent exit from in home aged care services as an attack on the most vulnerable.
Umbrella for the community
Long time PPP advocate John Spierings stressed the importance of electing more progressive councillors.
He listed a broad range of issues as the progressive agenda, including climate emergency, support for renters, investing in social housing and building community assets. 
Read policy platform 

More council candidates go public

A number of candidates declared their interest at the Progressive event, including:
Alex Darton, Independent, Balaclava Ward
Earl James, Greens, South Melbourne Ward
Justin Halliday, Independent, Alma Ward
Tim Baxter, Greens, St Kilda Ward
Liliana Carranza, Greens, Elwood Ward
Louise Crawford, Labor, Ward TBC
Also at the event was Angelica Di Camillo, the yet to be confirmed Greens candidate for Alma Ward.

Q&A with Progressive Port Phillip

TWiSK will be asking all groups participating in the election to be transparent about their finding and activities.
Here are their responses to our initial questions.
Looking back …
Q: How much money did you raise for the 2020 [Council election] and can you detail the sources, including the top five donors?
Fundraising for the 2020 election campaign involved donations made by individuals and two raffles, totalling just over $70,000. The top five donors were all residents of Port Phillip with no interests in property development. No donations were received from political parties or organisations. We did not seek permission for any donor’s name to be made public. The remaining funding came by smaller donations and the raffles.
Q: Did you provide accounts to the authorities?
Progressive Port Phillip is an incorporated association and we report annually to Consumer Affairs Victoria as required.
No funds were provided by Progressive Port Phillip to any candidates at the 2020 election. We ran an independent grassroots community campaign to raise awareness of local issues and to promote a progressive agenda to community members and candidates alike.
FYI Candidates are required to declare donations, and the 2020 declarations can be seen here
We note that this covers donations made direct to candidates and is not likely to include indirect campaign contributions such as large-scale advertising by organisations or parties to whom candidates were affiliated.
Looking ahead …
Q: What are the plans for 2024? How will PPP seek to shape the result?
As presented at the Policy Platform* and Election Campaign Launch last Tuesday, Progressive Port Phillip wants a Council that works for the whole Port Phillip community in all its diversity. This includes retaining and growing our community services through public ownership and accountability. No more privatisation of services and assets.
We want real action on the local environmental and climate challenges facing us now and into the future. This includes ensuring a climate and environmental lens over everything that our municipality does. Especially in our planning scheme, our transport infrastructure, our water supply and use, our urban spaces – to maximise sustainability and reduce carbon emissions.
We seek Council investment and partnerships with other governments and the community sector to increase the supply of social housing and advocacy for better renters’ rights.
We want an end to the self-interested political divisions that have dogged this Council term. We want a competent Council that is prudent in managing finances and caring in its provision of services. And a Council that genuinely engages all of us in new and innovative ways of making decisions.
We plan to:
Convene local neighbourhood meetings in our nine new wards;
Reach out to civil society & business stakeholders;
Run campaigns on key issues;
Conduct leaflet, billboard and poster publicity;
Design and host progressive candidate workshops covering key issues; and
Work with those candidates who affirm the Progressive Policy Platform to encourage a team approach for change.

TWiSK will publish Q&A with other groups / candidates as they emerge.
Contact Greg Day to submit as a candidate

Council election 2024
Key dates

All councils in Victoria will be elected by postal voting closing on Friday 25 October this year.

Everyone on the voters roll on Friday 30 August will receive a ballot pack in early October.
The voting pack will include the ballot paper, a reply-paid envelope, the candidate information statement and multi-language leaflet for voters.
After vote counting, the new councillors will be elected on 1 November for a 4 year term.
Nominations for council close noon Tuesday 24 September

New single councillor wards

This voting will elect one councillor in each of nine new awards.
Voting is preferential and it likely that most results will be decided by preferences.
Voters can expect to have at least three candidates in each ward, but possibly many more.
See ward map
TWiSK will be providing information on all the wards, but with special emphasis on the wards that include parts of St Kilda/Elwood.
TWiSK will make every effort to include every candidate equally and fairly.

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