In short:
Wyndham City Council held its first meeting under new mandatory public registration rules on Tuesday, 26 May 2026, with only Cr Josh Gilligan and Cr Shannon McGuire joining Mayor Preet Singh in the Werribee chamber. All other councillors attended the meeting remotely as the council’s governance crisis continues.
Most join Singh's meeting online
Wyndham City Council held its first-ever meeting under mandatory public registration requirements on Tuesday, 26 May 2026, with embattled Mayor Preet Singh chairing from the Wyndham Civic Centre in Werribee, but with only two of his fellow councillors choosing to be physically present.
Cr Josh Gilligan (Wimba ward) and Cr Shannon McGuire (Grange ward) were the only councillors to attend the meeting in person alongside the Mayor. The remaining councillors participated online, continuing a pattern of remote attendance that has become routine during the ongoing governance crisis at Wyndham City Council.
The meeting marked the first time in the council’s history that members of the public were required to pre-register and present photo identification to enter the chamber — a policy introduced by Wyndham City Council just days earlier, with registrations for Tuesday’s meeting closing at 5pm on Monday, 25 May 2026.
The council described the registration requirement as an interim measure, stating it had been introduced to manage in-person attendance and ensure the safety of councillors, staff and the community. Placards, signs and banners remain prohibited inside the chamber under the new conditions.
The governance crisis at Wyndham City Council has now stretched for nearly two months. It centres on a character reference Singh provided in April 2024 — before he was elected to council — for Kashyap Patel, a man who later pleaded guilty to grooming and sexually assaulting a 15-year-old girl and was sentenced to nine months’ jail. Singh has maintained the reference was written in good faith and has repeatedly rejected calls for his resignation.
His fellow councillors passed a unanimous no-confidence motion against him on 27 April, and four consecutive protests have been held outside the Wyndham Civic Centre in Werribee, each drawing more than 100 people. State and federal parliamentarians have also called for his resignation, including Werribee MP John Lister, who formally sought advice from the Minister for Local Government on what steps were being taken to restore confidence in the office of Mayor.
The Allan Labor Government appointed two municipal monitors — Jim Gifford and Jo-Anne Mazzeo — to oversee council operations from 11 May 2026 until 31 January 2027, at a cost of $1,375 per day to Wyndham ratepayers. The monitors are focused on service delivery, organisational culture, staff wellbeing, and council decision-making.
Despite the pressure, Singh has stated he will not resign. “I will not allow myself to be bullied into resigning,” he has said, describing the campaign against him as politically motivated.
Tuesday night’s meeting was also the first council meeting open to in-person public attendance — under the new conditions — since the crisis began, with previous meetings in late April having been held entirely online and closed to the public gallery.
Pressure on both Singh and the state government shows no sign of easing. A fifth rally calling for the Mayor to resign and for the Minister for Local Government to change the law is planned for Saturday, 13 June 2026, beginning at 3pm at Kelly Park in Werribee, with protesters set to march down Watton Street to Werribee MP John Lister’s office.
