Councillors in regional Western Australia have raised concerns that changes to the Local Government Act will diminish the voices of small, rural communities.
Key points:
- Eleven councils across WA will be required to remove their ward voting systems if proposed changes go ahead
- The Boyup Brook Shire president says not having wards will narrow the representation on council
- The local government minister says changes are needed to standardise the system
The state government has proposed a range of reforms to the act, including removing wards for smaller councils and standardising the number of councillors.
Under the proposed changes, the Shire of Boyup Brook would be one of 11 councils required to axe its ward system, which currently splits the local government area into four separate voting electorates.
Boyup Brook Shire President Richard Walker said a move away from the current system could narrow the representation on council.
"The concern is that they end up with mainly town people on council," he said.
"You end up with people with a background that is less rural when you go away from wards.
"So their experience and ideas can be a bit different."
Councillor Walker said the council reviewed its ward system a few years ago and the majority of residents wanted to keep it.
"We did not see any need for change, but we've been pushed down that path by the minister's decision," he said.
Changes needed for 'over-governed' state
Local Government Minister John Carey said the reforms were required to improve accountability and reduce dysfunction.
He said WA was over-governed.
"We have more than 1,000 local elected officials," he said.
"If you look across the board, we do see that there is a high ratio to electors, i.e. ratepayers, and so we do want to see some greater standardisation."
He said the current ward system had allowed some councillors to win a seat with only a small portion of the vote.
"We have seen in councils factionalism and infighting occurring because people believe that they only represent the ward," he said.
Fears councillors will burn out
The proposed changes would also see 48 councils in WA reduce the number of sitting councillors.
The Shire of Harvey is required to remove four council seats but was given the option by the Local Government Advisory Board to choose a timeline to implement the change.
Councillor Craig Carbone said at a council meeting he believed it should refuse to implement the changes at all.
He argued a reduction in councillors would mean the workload was spread between fewer people.
"We're spread out over a vast area and all we're going to do is burn out councillors that have to go to committee meetings across seven towns," he said.
But Mr Carey disagreed.
He said a reduction in red tape and access to online meetings should see the workload for councillors reduce, not increase under the changes.
"We're asking councils to look at themselves — how they can be more efficient and effective," he said.
The reforms are yet to be passed by WA parliament but Mr Carey said he was confident they would be in place before this year's local government elections.
Regional WA councils fear Local Government Act reforms will reduce rural representation - ABC News
Read More
No comments:
Post a Comment