Mandurah City council is looking at abolishing up to four councillor positions and the City’s ward system in a discussion paper on the latest review of the city’s boundaries, wards and councillor representation.
The City is required to review its wards at least every eight years under the Local Government Act 1995, with the last review undertaken in 2014.
Before conducting the review, the City must give the public six weeks notice and invite submissions and comments to inform the review process.
At its September meeting on Tuesday night, council endorsed the discussion paper and its release for public comment.
Presently, the City has four wards (North, Town, East, Coastal) with three councillors per ward, making a total of 12 councillors plus the mayor.
Because of Mandurah’s rapid growth since the last review, electors in the North and Coastal wards are currently underrepresented when it comes to its ‘councillor to elector ratio’, indicating a future change to ward boundaries.
The discussion paper presents five options, two which retain the ward system and three which abolish it. Three out of five options suggest cutting the number of councillors.
Option one suggests keeping four wards and 12 councillors, with boundary changes to make the Town and East wards larger to balance the number of electors represented by each councillor.
Option two suggests keeping four wards with the boundary adjustments but working to reduce the number of councillors from 12 to eight over the next three years.
This option would see the 2023 elections reduce representation to 10 councillors by reducing the North and Coastal wards to two councillors each and at the 2025 elections the East and Town wards would have their elected members reduced to two each as well.
Option three suggests the ward system is abolished and 12 councillors remain to represent the entire city’s interests.
The fourth option also suggests no wards as well as 10 councillors with no transition period, meaning only 10 members will be elected at the 2023 elections.
Option five suggests no wards and a transition to eight councillors over the next three years, with a transition to 10 councillors in the 2023 election and then eight in the 2025 elections.
The review comes as Local Government Minister John Carey pushes for reduced councillor numbers under the Government’s new suite of local government reforms, including abolishing the ward system for band 3 and 4 local governments.
Optional preferential voting will also become compulsory for all local government elections in a bid to move them more in line with State and Federal elections.
Local governments affected by the reforms will have until next month to present a transition plan to Mr Carey. Those that can’t agree on a plan will be forced to “spill” their entire council ahead of October 2023 elections and all of the mandatory changes will be enforced in one hit.
Discussion about this post