The hours

The Greens-dominated council has its own media team, but a taxpayer-funded parliamentary adviser issued press releases for City of Yarra via his work email, ...

[In June](/link/follow-20170101-p5ci5w), monitor Yehudi Blacher described a culture of dysfunction at the council and raised concerns about its financial stability. Unlike ministerial advisers and electorate officers, they are not bound by a code of conduct or explicitly banned from doing party political work. “It should be independently enforced and prohibit work on party matters.” The City of Yarra has its own media team to write press releases on behalf of the council and councillors, prompting questions about why a taxpayer-funded parliamentary adviser was needed to provide a similar service. Other press releases included a proposal by the Yarra council to build a new community hub in Abbotsford; the contents of a draft budget released by the council for community consultation; and, the election of Sophie Wade as mayor. The parliamentary adviser used his work email to spruik the council and its policies for a year after the November 2020 local government elections, despite the City of Yarra having its own media team.