Port Phillip Council Local Law Vote

Upcoming vote

On 10 December 2025, Port Phillip City Council will vote on whether to proceed with the formal statutory process of amending its local laws. The proposed amendment is the same one put forward by Council back on 21 May 2025, when it voted to conduct public consultation on the proposal before deciding whether to proceed with the local law change process.

Public consultation results

Accordingly, throughout June 2025, Port Phillip held public consultations with the community on its proposed local law change. Alongside workshops and pop-up consultations, a public survey was the key consultation tool.

The majority of consultation participants were opposed to the local law change proposal.

Despite this, local law change remains on the Council’s agenda.

What is the proposed local law change?

The current local law change proposal involves the introduction of a power to declare temporary ‘no encampment’ areas in Port Phillip, at locations where the Council believes a specific ‘encampment’ is causing problems with amenity or health and safety on council land. This would allow a process where people sleeping on council land could be asked to leave after receiving offers of assistance, and if they do not comply, their ‘encampment equipment’ could be impounded.

Southside Justice wrote to Port Phillip Council in September 2025, along with 19 local community support organisations who provide frontline support to people experiencing homelessness, to express our opposition to the proposal.

Why is Southside Justice opposing local law change in the City of Port Phillip?

Council’s own Community Safety Roundtable concluded, in its final report, that existing local laws are adequate and don’t need to be amended in order to enhance community safety or amenity.

Following this, public consultation has confirmed that a majority of the community are also not in favour of changing local laws.

From Southside Justice’s perspective, existing local laws provide the Council with adequate enforcement powers to address individual actions and behaviours as well as hazards that impact amenity and community safety.

The targeted disbandment of specific ‘encampments’ not only stigmatises people experiencing homelessness but also disproportionately harms Aboriginal communities.

The statutory process for amending local laws is lengthy and costly. We believe it’s a waste of resources that need to be directed to directly addressing the drivers of people sleeping rough and lacking adequate support in our community.

We are urging the City of Port Phillip to stay true to its legacy of compassionate, innovative responses to complex social problems by putting resources into improving our welfare-based response and exploring approaches like community and peer led alternative first response.