Community Policy 2024

COMMUNITY POLICY

The City of Melbourne has a diverse population of ages, ethnicities, abilities and interests. This diversity is a strength which enriches our community, and which Council has a responsibility to promote and support through well designed community services and infrastructure.

*Principles*
1	Community services provided by the City of Melbourne must consider the needs of the municipal community as a whole. Council must guarantee universal access to its community services.
2	Capital investment in community infrastructure is required now to enable the City to meet its obligations to future generations in the context of a growing population.
3	All Governments must respect, protect and promote the human right to the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health, which includes a holistic view of health as determined by things like housing, education, living standards and the environment, and commercial factors like advertising and access to healthy and unhealthy foods and opportunities for exercise and access to nature.
4	Members of the Kulin Nation have a strong cultural and spiritual connection with the area now known as the City of Melbourne, and their rights as traditional custodians of the land must be respected.
5	Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander members of the municipal community must be included in the development and implementation of public policies, programs and services.
6	The City of Melbourne’s communities are richer for understanding and acknowledging the history and cultures of Aboriginal Melbourne.
7	Multiculturalism is a great strength of Melbourne, and the City of Melbourne has an important role in welcoming and supporting new communities.
8	People who are homeless have the right to be treated with respect and understanding, and government has a responsibility to care for homeless persons while providing sustainable pathways out of homelessness.
9	Council policies for ageing residents should focus on healthy ageing, creating environments and opportunities that enable people to be and do what they value throughout their lives.
10	Government must address the root causes of anti-social behaviour and not just its symptoms.
11	The diverse use of public spaces, particularly at night time, fosters community, and improves safety.
12	Government must work with affected communities to minimise gambling harm and drug harm, and the stigma attached to them.
*Aims: Aboriginal Melbourne*
1	Ensure a whole-of-administration approach to awareness and understanding of Aboriginal issues through comprehensive Reconciliation Action Plans, including training for all Councillors and staff.
2	Establish regular formal meetings between the Council’s representatives and Traditional Owner representative bodies.
3	Respect, protect and promote Aboriginal peoples’ right to self-determination and support treaty-making between Traditional Owners and the City of Melbourne.
4	Ensure a high proportion of new public spaces created by Council are given local Aboriginal names.
5	Ensure the City of Melbourne is an employer of choice for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.
6	Improve Melburnians’ knowledge and understanding of Melbourne’s rich Aboriginal heritage including through accessible arts projects, interpretational signage and better resourced online communications.
7	Ensure Aboriginal Heritage at the Queen Victoria Market site is fully respected and integrated into the market renewal project.
*Aims: A City for people of all ages and abilities*
8	Support and promote healthy ageing, independence, and social inclusion for older people.
9	Work with older people, sector experts, service providers and the Commonwealth to ensure the provision of aged-care services that are appropriate to the diverse needs of the municipal community.
10	Make all parts of Melbourne’s public realm truly accessible to everyone regardless of ability.
11	Promote disability access awareness among businesses and community stakeholders.
12	Work with young people, ensuring that they have access to public spaces where they can feel safe, welcome, and engaged, particularly in the CBD.
13	Ensure that residents of the City of Melbourne are provided with affordable, quality child-care and aged care, including by means of council-owned, community-run, not-for-profit centres and services.
14	Work with international students to identify and support their wellbeing needs.
15	Advocate to and plan with the State Government to ensure adequate provision of new State Schools for future populations.
*Aims: Programs to promote and support community*
16	Maintain and promote a register of government-owned properties suitable for leasing to local community service providers at a very low rate.
17	Maintain and extend strong council support for not-for-profit groups that facilitate and build community, including by providing free or subsidised meeting spaces, and supporting multicultural and community events and neighbourhood houses and community learning programs.
18	Ensure an adequate supply of accessible and free significant civic meeting spaces in all parts of the municipality.
19	Work to improve the integration between Council’s community service plans and existing City social enterprises.
20	Provide easy access to library borrowing services and technology services.
21	Facilitate greater community interaction through the activation of Melbourne’s public spaces, particularly at night.
22	Ensure that no venue lockouts are introduced inside the City, which prides itself on its nightlife.
*Aims: Community Health and Well-being*
23	Implement environmental design strategies for public spaces that foster crime prevention through improved visibility, lighting and safe pedestrian movement.
24	Resist architectural and design strategies which discourage rough sleepers and skateboarders from public land.
25	Respectfully work with people experiencing homelessness to develop strategies to realise the right to adequate housing.
26	Work with the State and Commonwealth governments and service providers to develop programs to support survivors of domestic violence.
27	Promote and support violence prevention programs that target high risk groups.
28	Create more free fitness opportunities in outdoor spaces.
29	Facilitate regular and formal dialogue between the City of Melbourne, State Government, Consumer Affairs Victoria, Victoria Police, and stakeholders including bar-owners and relevant groups of local residents, to regularly and consistently cooperate on safety policies.
30	Minimise the number of permits granted to oversized licensed venues in areas with a history of alcohol-induced violence.
31	Work to reduce the number of electronic gaming machines in the City of Melbourne, including through lobbying the State Government to retire existing gaming permits through attrition.
32	Work closely with public housing communities and the State Government to develop specific strategies to address safety concerns of public housing tenants and to collaboratively plan a safe and welcoming public realm.
33	Continue to expand smoke-free areas in the City of Melbourne.
34	Advocate for overdose prevention (supervising injecting) services in the municipality, located where harm is greatest, and for other evidence-based forms of drug harm reduction.
35	Phase out the use of wood heaters to reduce the harmful impacts of wood smoke in residential neighbourhoods, seeking a metropolitan-wide approach.
*Aims: New Communities*
36	Continue to support new communities, including through fostering employment and leadership opportunities and the empowerment of women.
37	Continually review community, business and precinct grant programs to ensure Melbourne’s migrant communities are fairly supported and celebrated.
38	Improve the way Council considers the needs and desires of our diverse communities when planning new public spaces.
39	Actively welcome refugees and people seeking asylum.