Hobsons Bay City Council has again rewarded the exclusion of the membership that created The Substation by providing another $1.05 million (on top of the $1.05 million from 2016-2019 years) to the self elected committee that controls what was meant to be a COMMUNITY arts centre.

It is no surprise that mediation was a complete waste of time and energy. Council and the Substation had already come up with a pathetically weak and tokenistic response to appease community anger over the issues of grass roots community engagement and the exclusion of those that created The Substation.

According to the Council funding agreement a “Community Reference Group” is to be established. The Substation is to appoint a “Community Ambassador” to join the Management Committee. The self elected management committee gets to choose the “Community Ambassador” as well as members of the Community Reference Group – potentially an easily manipulated substitute for real membership engagement, transparency or accountability.

Hobsons Bay City Council and its officers have worked with the Substation Committee to achieve their aim of disenfranchising the original membership and completely changing the focus of the association to that of an experimental contemporary art space. They did this without any community consultation process or regard for the many years of hard work and millions invested by local residents and business sponsors.

Hobsons Bay City Council and its officers have, and continue to, support a closed, exclusive and discriminatory organisational structure. A Hobsons Bay City Council Officer or Councillor has been part of this self elected Committee for the past ten years and have been involved in every decision that excludes participation by our community.

The restoration and redevelopment of the Newport Substation was completed by volunteer local residents to create an asset for ALL our community to enjoy. The original vision has been hijacked by a group intent on excluding the wider community from participating in a meaningful way as members of the organisation.

Membership of the Incorporated Association is a right that should be returned to all residents and ratepayers of Hobsons Bay. Since 2013 the current self elected regime has refused membership rights to anyone but themselves and at the same time received millions of dollars of ratepayer funds.

If you want to see change, join the “Community Reference Group” and advocate for ALL of our community. https://thesubstation.org.au/community/community-ambassador/

It’s up to residents and ratepayers to keep our local Council and The Substation accountable, so that our local “community” asset is not lost to the people that created it forever.

Thankyou for your interest and support to return The Substation organisation to the community that transformed the Newport Substation and created the incorporated association that governs it.

Write to Council

You can helpby spreading the message and writing to the Mayor Cr Jonathon Marsden jmarsden@hobsonsbay.vic.gov.au conveying our communities concerns and requesting that this organisation be made to be accountable to an open membership group through clauses in the next funding agreement between Hobsons Bay City Council and The Substation Inc.

Meeting Summary

By Darren Williams

I have prepared the following summary of the meeting for the Council and intend to send them the video of what transpired. 

The Community Action Meeting was very well attended with over 150 concerned community members, as well as some members of The Substation Committee and management.

I provided The Substation Committee an opportunity to read a statement on behalf of the organisation. That statement did not respond to our communities concerns regarding the lack of good governance at within the organisation and confused subsidised venue hire for real community engagement. 

The Substation Committee and Management maintains that a closed membership structure is standard operating procedure for arts organisations. That may be so, but it certainly wasn’t the intent or purpose of the original members that in fact created the Association and restored the Newport Substation from derelict shell into the wonderful community asset that stands today. Even in closed organisational structures the Committee is not self elected and unaccountable, prospective Committee candidates generally nominate for a position on the Committee and are then appointed by an independent stakeholder group, generally a level of Government. In The Substations case the most important stakeholder group is the community that spent tens of thousands of hours restoring the Newport Substation and establishing the Association.

I am hopeful that The Substation Committee heard the deep concerns raised at the meeting and acts appropriately to be more inclusive and accountable.

We now have many hundreds of registrations at www.saveoursubstation.org and a broad cross section of “former” members as well as concerned residents and ratepayers of Hobsons Bay has expressed their disappointment and disgust at what has happened at The Substation with regards to governance and lack of grass roots community engagement. The fact that HBCC is funding a closed non-elected small group of people accountable to no-one is very concerning for all our community.

If The Substation Committee does not willingly admit community membership of the organisation, our group believes that all of our concerns can be addressed through Hobsons Bay City Council’s funding agreement with The Substation. Council will make a decision on this funding agreement in the coming weeks.

The provision of a clause which stipulates that the Incorporated Association shall return to an open membership organisation before any funding is provided will bring about incremental change to re-balance the organisation in terms of meeting its contemporary focus as well as being relevant and accountable to the community that created the The Substation in the first place.

All of our community is being encouraged to write to Hobsons Bay City Councillors to express their concerns and to request that action be taken to ensure the communities expectations with regards to good governance are met. 

At the meeting I presented the following and then answered questions from the assembled community:

• Some context of the history of the project.
• I explained why it has become necessary to engage with the wider community regarding this issues of governance and community engagement.
• I offered a solution to the current issues that would be acceptable to all ie retaining the contemporary focus, establishing a community engagement strategy and working group and making sure The Substation Committee is accountable to a broad based Association membership as well as the ratepayers of Hobsons Bay.

I believe that if we all work together harmoniously for what is best for The Substation, it’s membership (including the hundreds of people that believe they have been excluded) and the residents and ratepayers of Hobsons Bay, we can come up with a very positive outcome that brings together the substantial knowledge and skill base that exists in our community. Together we can empower The Substation to fully realize it’s potential as the premier iconic arts and culture space in Melbourne.

As part of that solution, we see the provision of an open membership Incorporated Association to be a key pillar of the future Substation Inc. An open, accountable and transparent organisation is an essential and appropriate structure to address the needs of all stakeholders. We would expect that this condition to be a part of any future funding agreement between The Substation Inc. and Hobsons Bay City Council.

Thank you to everyone who attended the community action meeting.