My Council

The Federal or Commonwealth Government is responsible for national affairs, and holds its formal meetings in Australia's national capital of Canberra.   Its areas of responsibility include:

• defence and foreign affairs
• trade, commerce and currency
• immigration and citizenship
• postal services, telecommunications and broadcasting
• air travel
• and most social services and pensions.

It also provides some funding to State and Local Governments to support their work.

One of the functions of the Federal Government is to determine applications for Australian citizenship.  If your application for citizenship has been approved, congratulations! The final step in your journey to citizenship will be to attend a ceremony hosted by Council, where you will recite the pledge of commitment and have citizenship conferred upon you by the presiding officer, who is usually the Mayor.

The City of Moonee Valley falls within the Federal electorate of Maribyrnong.  Click here to find out more about the Maribyrnong federal electorate and how to contact the current Member of Parliament.

The State Government is primarily responsible for Victoria's:

• schools
• hospitals
• conservation and environment
• roads, railways and public transport
• public works
• agriculture and fishing
• industrial relations
• community services
• sport and recreation
• consumer affairs
• police, prisons and emergency services.

In Local Government, we tend to work very closely with the State due to the many common interests we share, such as delivering great sporting grounds, libraries and services.  We also have a common interest in building cities where people can get around easily.

The City of Moonee Valley overlaps with the State electorates of Essendon and Niddrie.  The State electorate of Essendon includes suburbs such as Ascot Vale, Essendon, Essendon Fields, Flemington, Moonee Ponds and Strathmore.  The electorate of Niddrie covers the following suburbs: Aberfeldie, Airport West, Avondale Heights, Keilor, Keilor East, Keilor Park and Niddrie.  To read more about your State electorate and get in touch with your State Member of Parliament, click here for Essendon and here for Niddrie.

Melbourne's Western Metropolitan Region is also represented by five Members in the Upper House of the Victorian Parliament.  You can read more about them here.

We like to think of Local Government as being the closest level of government to the community.  It's the level of government that delivers many of the services and facilities you rely on every day - whether that be maintaining roads and footpaths, collecting rubbish bins and recycling, maintaining parks, open spaces and sporting facilities for the community to enjoy, or encouraging lifelong learning through our library services.

In Victoria, the roles and responsibilities of Local Governments are set out by an Act of the Victorian Parliament, the Local Government Act 2020.  The current Act was adopted in March 2020 and will be implemented in four stages, from April 2020 to July 2021.  It represents a significant change for Local Government Victoria, which you can read more about here.

The Local Government Act 2020 defines the role of Council as being to provide good governance for the benefit of and well-being of our municipal community.  We do this in line with the following principles:

• Council decisions are to be made and actions taken in accordance with the relevant law;
• priority is to be given to achieving the best outcomes for the municipal community, including future generations;
• the economic, social and environmental sustainability of the municipal district, including mitigation and planning for climate change risks, is to be promoted;
• the municipal community is to be engaged in strategic planning and strategic decision making;
• innovation and continuous improvement is to be pursued;
• collaboration with other Councils and Governments and statutory bodies is to be sought;
• the ongoing financial viability of the Council is to be ensured;
• regional, state and national plans and policies are to be taken into account in strategic planning and decision making;
• the transparency of Council decisions, actions and information is to be ensured.