Geoff Lake is Monash Council’s longest serving councillor. He represents Glen Waverley Ward – the place where he grew up and went to school.
He is also a practising barrister at the Victorian Bar.
Since his first election, he has worked hard to improve services and facilities across the City of Monash while keeping rates as low as possible.
Geoff has played a prominent role at the local, state and national levels – including as President of the Australian Local Government Association (ALGA) and President of the Municipal Association of Victoria (MAV). As part of his role as ALGA President, Geoff was a full member of the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) and represented councils across Australia there alongside the Prime Minister and state and territory leaders.
Appearing regularly in the media, Geoff has delivered a live televised address to the National Press Club on local government reform and was a regular on ABC TV’s News Breakfast Program to review the daily newspapers. He also appeared fortnightly on Tom Elliott’s 3AW Drive program to present ‘Council Watch’.
Away from local government, he has served on various boards including as chair of a large industry superannuation fund, the Metropolitan Fire Brigade, a water corporation board, the Australian Institute of Superannuation Trustees (AIST) and he was the founding chair of the Alliance for Gambling Reform.
At the age of 22, Geoff became the youngest person ever to be a mayor in Victoria when he was elected mayor of Monash Council.
As mayor, Geoff exposed councillors at the South East Regional Waste Management Group who were travelling for no purpose and at ratepayer expense to extravagant places all over the world. He took on these vested interests on behalf of all ratepayers and put a stop to these junkets and the wastage of public money.
He was the first mayor to choose not to wear the mayoral robes, he stopped the use of the ‘Your Worship’ title, got rid of the pretentious ‘MON1’ personalised registration plates on the mayoral car and slashed the Council’s spending on hospitality and lavish functions.
He has since served three further terms as mayor.
Throughout his time as a councillor, Geoff has sought to limit annual rate increases. Monash now has the lowest council rates in Victoria – an outcome he has worked hard to secure.
Geoff believes in effective, transparent, accountable and responsible government and he has pursued greater efficiency throughout the Council’s operations.
Geoff has also been a key driver of major projects such as the development of Kingsway and the Glen Waverley Activity Centre, the Monash Aquatic and Recreation Centre and the Monash Gallery of Art. He has also championed initiatives to strengthen services for vulnerable and disadvantaged people in Monash and has been a prominent advocate for reducing the harm caused by poker machines in Monash and across Victoria.
Geoff is a member of:
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