Melbourne council to change its ‘racist’ name warning residents their rubbish might not be picked up

An Australian council spending $1million to change its ‘racist’ name has told locals their rubbish collection will be disrupted because of a pay dispute with staff. 

Moreland City Council adjacent to the Melbourne CBD wrote to residents in the suburbs of Glenroy, Pascoe Vale and Hadfield telling them of the industrial action. 

The text sent about 10am Thursday advised them that red and green wheelie bins will be ‘prioritised’ but yellow recycle bins will need to be left out for another week. 

The council apologised for the inconvenience, which stems from maintenance workers negotiating a new Enterprise Bargaining Agreement to replace the one which expired mid-2021. 

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Locals in Moreland City Council in Melbourne have been told their rubbish will not be collected amid a pay dispute with garbos (file image) 

They want a two-per cent pay increase for the next three years, effective from when the last agreement expired, and a $20-a-week emergency fund for depot workers. 

In May, more than 500 workers went on strike including gardeners, library staff and depot workers who refused to collect bins. 

Adding the animosity are reports the council’s CEO Cathy Henderson was given a significant pay rise in a confidential meeting in April. 

One local in Hadfield told the Herald Sun that rubbish was piling up in the area after bins had not been collected for two weeks. 

‘You pay them rates and they can’t even get this done. It’s what they’re supposed to do,’ Vince Vetta said. 

Amid the pay dispute Moreland Council is paying $1million to change it’s name.

Moreland City Council (pictured) is set to spend $1million to change its name as rubbish piles up in the streets

The local government area was established in 1994 and named after nearby land that settler Farquhar McCrae acquired in 1839.

His forebears had a plantation of that name in Jamaica which traded in sugar and rum and which held up to 700 slaves at its peak in 1827. 

The request to change the council’s name was put forward by local elders of the traditional owners the Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung and was backed in a vote by Labor and Greens councilors. 

Council will need to for out taxpayer cash to change all the signs and logos in the area and well as update computer systems and stationary – a process expected to take two years.