Greater Shepparton City Council has taken less than three minutes to decide not to do anything during an additional meeting organised to discuss its multimillion-dollar waste disposal tender.
Council had organised the meeting on Tuesday, May 2 to consider a rescind motion that Cr Seema Abdullah had signalled she would move.
“Councillors were given additional information that related to the consideration of today’s (Tuesday’s) meeting, and that additional information that was presented couldn’t allow for the rescission process to take place, for a councillor to move that, which, obviously, then doesn’t allow you to go to the second part of the agenda, which is to reconsider the original motion that was put forward to councillors,” Mayor Shane Sali said.
If passed, the rescind motion would have abandoned a tender process being pursued to replace an earlier process, the Resource Recovery Collective Hume Tender Award, which has recommended contracts for kerbside, recycling and organic waste collection and handling be awarded to ASX-listed Cleanaway and Geelong-based Western Composting.
Those contracts are for up to 15 years, and worth more than $75 million.
That outcome was publicly criticised by a number of the region’s prominent figures, who said the Goulburn Valley economy would experience greater benefits from the appointment of a local firm.
Cleanaway is embroiled in ongoing disputes with unions in multiple states, has been fined multiple times for environmental breaches and has struggled to meet the obligations of existing contracts in a Melbourne municipality.
When all councillors, except Cr Greg James, who was an apology, met to consider the rescind motion, Cr Abdullah did not nominate the motion, and neither did any of the other councillors, meaning the motion lapsed.
That meant the recommendation, which was supposed to follow, that council award the kerbside contracts to Cleanaway, ahead of local company Foott Waste, and Western Composting, was not considered.
Essentially, the status quo remained, meaning council will move forward with its plan to investigate an alternative procurement process to the Resource Recovery Collective Hume Tender Award.
“As it stands right now, the motion that was supported on the 11th of April, being the abandonment and next steps forward, will remain,” Cr Sali said.
The mayor said he could not explain to ratepayers what the new information was that prevented the rescind motion progressing.
“Commercial-in-confidence information has come (to light) that effectively contributed to what a council would be able to do at this particular point,” he said.
“So when, and if, more information becomes available that we can put into a public realm we’ll be able to do that.”
Cr Sali said he could appreciate that some ratepayers and the tendering companies might be frustrated by the latest twist in the decision-making process.
“They may have some questions or want some understanding of where we started and where we’ve got to, but this is a big contract,” he said.
“It’s over a 15-year period of time. It’s important councillors ask questions, get the relevant information to ensure that we can make informed decisions, and that was what took place today and that’s what took place on the 11th of April as well.”
Asked for his reaction to comments by Don Kendall, a losing contractor who had tendered for the Moira Shire contract, which described the Resource Recovery Collective Hume Tender Award as an “absolute dog’s breakfast”, Cr Sali brushed aside the comments.
“I wouldn’t have thought so, but dogs get good breakfasts at the moment,” he said.