Community “consultation” in North and West Melbourne

By any reasonable measure, 2025 was a year when governments' community consultation in North and West Melbourne failed – and failed badly.

The most glaring example was the City of Melbourne’s recent “consultation” on the West Gate Tunnel impacts on November 20.

After repeated requests from residents to engage early, the meeting was announced with minimal notice, held at a venue with small capacity and no online capability, inaccessible to people with mobility needs, and run by a facilitator who refused to allow attendees to speak. Residents left angry, confused and with more questions than answers.

This is not an isolated incident. It reflects a broader pattern that has played out again and again: consultation arriving too late, moving too fast, or structured in ways that make meaningful community input impossible.

So serious has this problem become that the Victorian Government this year convened an Inquiry into Community Consultation Practices. Yet even that process attracted just over 130 submissions from across the entire state. For an inquiry about engagement, the silence was telling.

Across North and West Melbourne, the consequences of poor government consultation are tangible. Key issues that the North West Melbourne Association (NWMA) continues to advocate for include:

40 km/h speed limits on key arterial roads such as Victoria, Curzon and Spencer streets, to mitigate West Gate Tunnel traffic impacts and protect local communities.

A new high school in Arden, urgently needed to meet demand from the graduating foundation cohort of Docklands Primary School students by 2028.

Since 2024, when raised stops were installed on La Trobe St without consultation, compromising access to West Melbourne buildings, the NWMA has repeatedly offered constructive ideas to use future 57 tram stop upgrades to improve Errol St’s amenity and support local businesses. All too late, the council has passed an emergency motion recently to begin an Errol St masterplan that should have been developed years ago.

For more than 50 years, the NWMA has shown that communities are a resource, not an obstacle. We bring lived experience, local knowledge and workable solutions. Yet throughout 2025, too many consultation processes treated locals as an afterthought rather than a partner.

However, like many long-standing community organisations, the NWMA now face the challenge of volunteer renewal. Resident associations matter because they provide representation and a collective voice - but only if new people step forward to be part of them.

If there were ever a moment for North and West Melbourne locals to get involved, this is it. You don’t need prior experience. You don’t need hours every week. You simply need a stake in this place - which anyone reading this paper already has.

With your voice added to ours, 2026 can be the year our neighbourhoods are not just “consulted”, but genuinely heard.

nwma.org.au •