Collaboration and Fishermans Bend priorities for Montague’s new councillor
Words by Georgie Atkins & David Allen
Community collaboration and the pursuit of funding commitments for urban renewal in Fishermans Bend will be front and centre for Montague Ward’s newly elected councillor Alex Makin.
“What I want to see in Port Phillip is the ability to work with our community,” Cr Makin told Southbank News.
“Far too many of the interactions I’ve seen with [City of Port Phillip] council, are adversarial when they don’t have to be.”
Cr Makin had previously served eight years as a councillor, including a year as Mayor of the City of Maroondah, and said that experience provided him with insights to the problems plaguing Fishermans Bend.
“We have not had any funding commitment towards [public transport] and you know it’s quite clear that they are not going to be delivered by 2028,” he said.
“If the state government doesn’t get its act together and invest in Fishermans Bend, all we are doing is recreating the problems we see in the outer suburbs of Melbourne.”
Cr Makin was elected to Port Phillip Council in November after what he labelled a “tough contest”.
“Other candidates had fairly substantial backing from external parties,” Cr Makin said.
“I’m the only candidate who lives in the ward. My campaign was supported by volunteers who lived in the ward and know the community, so this was a win for the community ultimately,” he added.
The councillor, who also runs a consulting, marketing and business management firm, moved to Montague, which encompasses parts of South Melbourne, Port Melbourne and Albert Park, in 2013.
He became locally prominent as a key leader of a community campaign against changes to Port Phillip’s dog off-leash guidelines.
“To be fair to the council, we were successful in that campaign, and they revised the guidelines,” Cr Makin said.
“But what it highlighted to me is the frustrations that I’ve often seen … where you almost need to mobilise the entire community just to get council to change direction.”
Cr Makin said he had already begun lobbying for a return of former City of Port Phillip meeting rules that allowed community deputations to present to council on specific local issues.
“I think a key measure of success for this council will be how it interacts with the community, and the reintroduction of the deputation mechanism is absolutely a key way we can help improve those collaborations.”
“I am here for the community,” Cr Makin said. “This is about collaborating together to make sure that after four years Fishermans Bend and Montague more broadly is in a better place than where we started.” •

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