Geelong mayor and council to be sacked

Media personality-turned-mayor Darryn Lyons and the entire Geelong council are to be axed by the state government over its "dysfunctional" culture.

Former paparazzo-turned-regional mayor Darryn Lyons and his council are set to be sacked by the Victorian government.

Local Government Minister Natalie Hutchins will introduce legislation into parliament on Tuesday to dismiss the "dysfunctional" Geelong council, in response to an independent Commission of Inquiry.

Ratepayers will also be unable to elect a new council until 2020, with the parliament to be asked to keep an administrator running the city until then so the local government's issues can be resolved.

The inquiry report into the Geelong council, to be tabled on Tuesday, recommends the council be dismissed.

The council will be dismissed on the grounds it failed to provide good government because it could not work together in the city's best interests, failed to provide a long-term vision and strategy for Geelong, and failed to properly respond to a 2015 report that found a systemic culture of bullying.

Ms Hutchins said the inquiry report's findings left the state government "no choice but to dismiss the council".

"The people of Geelong deserve better. The city is too important for it to be run by a dysfunctional council that is simply unable to work together," she said.

The Commission of Inquiry was set up in late 2015 following a damning investigation by former commissioner with the Australian Human Rights Commission, Susan Halliday.

Ms Halliday found an endemic culture of bullying, sexism and favouritism within the council.


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Source: AAP



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