Councils swing for more say in WA
Western Australian local governments want more warning if the State is going to amalgamate.
The WA Local Government Association is proposing that affected communities be able to vote on their future.
The group is looking to amend the WA Local Government Act 1995 so that future mergers would be subject to a vote by the affected communities, and the proposal has won the support of WA Local Governments.
Currently, community voting can be demanded by the community for Council amalgamations, but they are not an option for boundary adjustments.
It means the community does not vote even if the adjustment abolishes an entire Council.
The WA Government is attempting boundary adjustments to merge 20 metropolitan Councils into 10 new entities, with three existing Councils to remain and seven others to amalgamate into a new western suburbs Council.
WA Local Government Association President Mayor Troy Pickard says under the current legislation a boundary adjustment can be used to merge two Councils, without the community getting a say.
“While there were a number of variations on the specific solution, many in the sector are strongly of the view that to use a boundary adjustment to absorb an entire Council without an ability for the community to trigger a poll, hinders their ability to voice concern,” he said.
“The belief is that boundary adjustments were intended to be used for minor adjustments to Councils to align changing operational circumstances such as waste collection routes but not to make wholesale changes.”
In addition to reaffirming the position of voluntary reform and opposing forced amalgamations, the motion passed by the WALGA State Council was to adopt and advocate that poll provisions contained in the Act should be amended so that:
Electors of a Local Government where one or more Local Governments will be abolished or significantly affected by a boundary change proposal are able to demand a poll on the proposal with ‘significantly affected’ being defined as causing a 50 per cent variation in Population or Rateable Properties or Revenue.
Mayor Pickard said given that the amendment would require legislative change it would be unlikely to be implemented prior to the Local Government Advisory Board recommending the structure of metropolitan Councils to the Local Government Minister later this month.
He said that it is the hope of WA Councils that the State Government gives serious consideration to amending the legislation and ensure that communities are afforded a say in their future.