By Alesha Capone
Wyndham council will hold a special meeting on Tuesday night to consider asking the local government minister to stand down any councillors who are not double-vaccinated against COVID-19.
The special meeting will be held at 6.30pm at the request of councillors Josh Gilligan, Heather Marcus and Mia Shaw.
The council agenda states that at the meeting, the council will consider asking its chief executive Stephen Wall to obtain confirmation of the vaccination status of all Wyndham councillors by 11.59pm on Wednesday, December 1.
The agenda suggests that the names of all vaccinated councillors be published on the council’s website by Thursday, December 1.
The agenda also recommends that the chief executive write to Local Government Minister Shaun Leane, “to inform him of any councillor/s who are not double vaccinated by the above deadline and request that he uses powers afforded to him under Section 228 of the Local Government Act 2020 in relation to standing down a councillor who is not double vaccinated”.
The agenda goes on to state that preamble section 228 of the Local Government Act 2020 enables the local government minister to stand down a councillor who creates a “serious risk to the health and safety of councillors or council staff”.
“This power is only reserved for the most serious of circumstances,” the agenda states.
“An unvaccinated councillor would be an appropriate use of this power to protect our staff, councillors and our community and to signal that being unvaccinated and holding elected office is untenable.
“Wyndham City is on track for more than 95 per cent of our community to be double vaccinated.
“The councillors signatory to this motion pushed for the establishment of a seven-day vaccination hub and an increase in vaccination supply to protect our community from the devastation of COVID on the social and economic fabric of the Wyndham community.
“It would be hypocritical for Wyndham City Council to not take a stand requiring councillors who were elected by this community to be double vaccinated too.
“This city had the highest COVID cases in the nation in 2020.
“Dozens in our community died because of this virus.
“Hundreds of Wyndham families can talk firsthand of their experience in battling this virus.
“Council staff are required to be double vaccinated under the chief health officer’s mandatory health directions. Councillors should be too.”
The agenda states that the state government’s mandatory vaccine requirements have led to the suspension of members of Parliament, who have consciously chosen not to be vaccinated.
“The councillors who have called for this action believe that the same suspension powers should apply to local councillors,” the agenda reads.
“Ratepayers should not be paying for an unvaccinated councillor to continue who is prepared to put the health and safety of our community, staff and councillors at risk by refusing to access the available vaccinations readily available in our community.”
