7 JANUARY, 2025
YEAR IN REVIEW... STORIES OF THE YEAR Amedeo Gallicchio’s Halloween display drew a crowd in October. (Damjan Janevski) 438977_01
Democracy back in 2024 Democracy returned to Whittlesea in 2024 – four-and-a-half years after the council was sacked by the state government. But a shadow was cast over the council election after the Victorian Electoral Commission (VEC) announced it had launched a probe into alleged vote tampering in the municipality’s Lalor ward. The (VEC) referred voting irregularities to police and the Local Government Inspectorate (LGI) for investigation after it detected a high number of multiple ballot papers appearing to be from the same voters. The irregularities were also referred to the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (VCAT) for a review of the election result. Electoral commissioner Sven Bluemmel said 128 ballots in Lalor ward were detected as
suspicious. Mr Bluemmel said he could not speculate what had happened, or who was behind the suspected vote tampering, but said it “indicates nefarious intent rather than being accidental”. The VEC is unable to determine which candidate the suspicious votes were directed to as the ballot is secret. The new council comprised three former councillors - Lawrie Cox, Stevan Kozmevski and Christine Stow – and eight fresh faces, including former Freedom Party deputy leader Aidan McLindon who was elected Whittlesea mayor for 204-25. There was also drama for the newly-elected Hume council, which referred a “malicious” secret recording to police for investigation. The recording was made during a private
Hume council briefing and emerged on social media during the November local government elections.Confidential items were discussed at the briefing. Councillor Carly Moore said the “unauthorised and undisclosed” recording went against the standards council representatives needed to abide by. In September, as youth knife crimes continued to hit the headlines across Melbourne, a Bundoora mum called on schools to do more to stop the violence. Moetu Tawha’s breaking point came when her 13-year-old daughter had a knife pulled on her by another student. She spoke out amid concerns that knife crime would have long-term consequences on school environments if no one broke the
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silence. Roadworks continued to make an impact on the lives of Whittlesea and Hume residents throughout 2024, with the state government upgrading Bridge Inn Road, Mickleham Road and Craigieburn Road. Thankfully for motorists, works on all three projects wrapped up late in the year – six months ahead of schedule in some cases. But perhaps the most debated infrastructure project of 2024 was the airport rail link. As the state government and Melbourne Airport debated while the airport station should be built above or below ground, the project spent a large part of the year in limbo, before a compromise was reached in July, paving the way for the project to proceed with an above ground station.