Council
2 July, 2025
Tensions overflow
ONE sentence in a straight-forward agenda item saw a Moyne Shire councillor brought to tears and standing orders eventually suspended.
Councillors were tasked with adopting the Moyne Shire Council Plan 2025-2029 at last week’s Ordinary Meeting of Council.
Councillors had released the plan for public feedback at the April meeting without incident, but emotions flared last week when councillor Susan Taylor rose to speak against the motion, foreshadowing a motion to remove “all mention of Traditional Owners”.
She said she took exception to the sentence “strengthen relationships with Traditional Owners and First Nations communities” being included among the list of aspirations for what the Council Plan 2025-2029 could achieve.
Cr Taylor recounted her experience at a treaty information forum in Warrnambool recently.
“We are to enter a treaty era that will not stop with the first treaty but will build changes over time,” she said.
“The treaty process in our state is tilting Victoria towards authoritarianism – therefore, I cannot in good conscience support a strategic plan that includes, as a key aspiration, a goal to strengthen relationships with Traditional Owners and First Nations communities, along with its attendant actions.”
Cr Taylor said she was concerned treaty would mean attempted seizure of private land and loss of government power.
“We were told this is about power and resources for Aboriginal people – that they will be going after other portfolios, but land and waters will be the beginning because they want Aboriginal people to be sharing the prosperity that happens on country,” she said.
Councillor Lisa Ryan raised a point of order, saying she was “struggling to understand the length of the spiel and how it’s related to the item”.
Councillor Lockett also spoke out, saying he had attended the treaty information forum and labelling Cr Taylor’s claims as“inaccurate”.
Cr Taylor acknowledged colonisation had resulted in the dispossession, marginalisation and exclusion of Aboriginal people but said responding to injustice should not “undermine the very system that holds the promise of equal justice and freedom for all”.
“I support empowering Indigenous Australians through equal opportunity, education and personal responsibility – ensuring every individual has the freedom to shape their own future,” she said.
Councillor Doukas also spoke against, raising issue with the Council Plan referencing the Victorian Public Health and Wellbeing Plan 2023-2027 (VPHWP), as the foreword acknowledging Aboriginal Victorians used the term “invasion”.
“I don’t know of any invasion that took place,” he said.
Cr Doukas also took exception to the mention of the COVID-19 pandemic, climate change and sexual and reproductive health being mentioned in the VPHWP.
“We all know the COVID vaccine had a really detrimental impact on reproductive health,” he said.
A visibly distressed Cr Murrihy apologised for getting emotional before accusing Cr Taylor and Cr Doukas as using the meeting for performative politics.
“Firstly, months. Months, we have been doing this process – this is the first time any of this has been brought up,” she said.
“That is grandstanding, in my opinion.
“I apologise for being so emotional but can we not be empathetic? Can we not inform ourselves correctly on these matters?”
The Moyne Shire Council Plan 2025-209 was adopted in a 4-2 vote with councillor Karen Foster, Cr Lockett, Cr Ryan and Cr Murrihy voting in favour, while Cr Taylor and Doukas voted against and councillor Lloyd Ross abstained.
Later in the meeting, the disagreement arose again during General Matters when Cr Murrihy spoke of her participation in the Walk for Truth.
Cr Murrihy said a councillor had “demonstrated a profound lack of understanding, or perhaps a refusal to understand, the brutality of colonisation and the lasting impact it has had, and continues to have, on First Nations people”.
“I call on all councillors to reflect on the weight of our words,” she said.
Cr Lockett said he was “blown away” by what he had heard in the room, and vowed to continue to call it out.
“When we talk about stolen land and stolen wealth, that’s what happened,” he said.
“There were massacres, obviously. There were horrendous atrocities that occurred to Indigenous people – how, in the face of that, can we talk about treaty which doesn’t affect private land? That’s High Court legislation in this country that doesn’t impact private land.”
Cr Doukas then spoke, saying he believed Cr Lockett was personally accusing him of stealing land.
He called on Cr Lockett to tell him what land was stolen before Cr Foster called for proceedings to be brought back to the purpose of General Matters.
“I find that offensive, very offensive,” Cr Doukas said.
Cr Foster called a five-minute break before proceedings resumed.
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