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Local elections in NSW

By Guy Hallowes - posted Thursday, 21 August 2014


There are three issues that affect or will affect the authority and therefore the accountability of Local Councils, namely Compulsory Voting, Political Party representation at Local Council level and now the initiative to force 'Corporations' to vote in Local Council elections. All these issues as they currently stand reduce the power of Councils and entrench authority in the hands of the State Government and State Party hierarchies.

Compulsory Voting

Three Australian States, namely Western Australia, South Australia and Tasmania do not insist on compulsory voting in Local Council elections. This certainly reduces the participation rate amongst voters. In the last Local Council elections Tasmania recorded a 55% participation rate, South Australia 33% and Western Australia a low 27%. This obviously reflects the interest in local politics in those territories.

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I became involved in local issues a few years ago because of the development mess that the current NSW State Government was making and continues to make in our electorate. At the last Council election I ran the pre-poll for some Independent candidates as well as doing some hours of house to house canvassing. This activity as well as attendance on polling day enabled me to talk to hundreds of people. Prior to this experience I had no strong feeling about compulsory voting.

Based on the conversations I had with electors, I am now wholly opposed to compulsory voting at Local Council level. Many people merely see it as a chore; they have no interest or knowledge of the issues involved and know nothing of the candidates. The only reason they vote is to comply with the law and to avoid a fine. The mythology that compulsory voting ensures that people take an interest in the political process, is just that, mythology. Forcing people to vote is merely an irritant; people either take an interest or they don't. Forcing people to vote is not democratic; it's actually just the opposite and smacks of totalitarianism. Compulsory voting merely reinforces the perception of excessive interference in people's lives by those in power. If people don't want to vote then that should be their prerogative.

There are thirteen countries in the world that enforce compulsory voting, including such paragons of democracy as The Democratic Republic of Congo and North Korea; Australia is included in this select little group. It is notable that Australia is the only member of the OECD (i.e. the developed world) that enforces compulsory voting. There are another seventeen countries who have compulsory voting legislation on the books but do not enforce it, including Belgium and France. There are a few countries who have had compulsory voting in the past but have since legislated to abandon the practice. Ref: Wikipedia/ compulsory voting.

Currently this requirement wastes money and time and achieves nothing, except perhaps to reinforce the current hold the major parties have on the political process. This brings me to the next point.

(Note: This discussion relates to Local Council elections, although some of the arguments against compulsory voting apply to State and Federal politics as well.)

Should organised political parties be able to represent themselves at local elections?

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The second point is: Should organised Political Parties be prohibited from standing at Local Council elections? In my electorate the Liberal party controls the Council; as a result the main interest of the Liberal Councillors is to do the bidding of the Liberal party hierarchy in William Street, Sydney. Inevitably, as a result the needs and wishes of the community take a back seat or are ignored altogether. Why, you may ask? The only reason for this behaviour on the part of Liberal Party Councillors is to maintain the Liberal Party endorsement, which virtually ensures their election and in some cases their elevation into State politics. So their focus is completely inappropriate.

The issues of compulsory voting and Major Party participation in Local issues feed into one another. The electorate in which I live is overwhelmingly Liberal, so while voting is compulsory many people will merely vote Liberal without putting any thought into the issue. Maybe Councils consisting of Independents committed to community issues, would better represent those issues as well as being more willing to deliver on them. Also where necessary they will be better able to represent the views of the community to State and Federal Governments, without upsetting the party hierarchy. A pain for State and Federal Governments, but then that's democracy.

I have used my local electorate as an example of the abuse that compulsory voting and Major Political Party dominance has generated here since I am familiar with the situation. I have no doubt the criticism applies equally to many and possibly most other electorates in New South Wales, regardless of their political hue. This brings me to the next point.

Should 'corporations' be forced to vote in local council elections?

There is currently a proposal, put forward by the Shooters and Fishers party, being considered by The NSW State Parliament to force 'Corporations' in Sydney's CBD to vote in Local Council elections; each corporation will have up to two votes, not one as is the case with ordinary citizens. The proposal is supported by the Liberals. This is being promoted as a 'win' for democracy; the actual reason for this initiative is much more grubby and mundane. From public commentary it appears to me that the major reason for the initiative is to 'get rid of' Clover Moore, currently Sydney's Lord Mayor. Whatever one might think of Ms Moore, this is dirty, one eyed, corrupt politics if ever I have seen it.

We should also understand what 'Corporations' means. It means all companies and businesses, big or small, from corner shops to large corporates, with addresses in Sydney's CBD. It includes foreign owned companies and companies with some foreign ownership; yes, it means that any foreign owned company situated in Sydney's CBD will have up to two votes in Sydney City's Local elections. (While the person casting the vote has to be an Australian Citizen, he or she will inevitably be told how to vote by the controlling shareholder, who may be foreign.) I ask, are Australian companies operating overseas offered such a facility? I have worked in many countries outside Australia and have never heard of any such arrangement.

The argument that businesses are disenfranchised by the current arrangements, which are that they have to re-enrol for each local election, is flawed. 1700 out of a possible 80 000 businesses actually voted at the last Local Election in Sydney; it is clear that they are not exactly clamouring for the changes envisaged.

Currently this proposal is confined to the Sydney City (the CBD). What would happen if this arrangement was extended to other Local Council areas in Sydney or beyond Sydney? Through ICAC we have already seen the level of corruption that prevails in Newcastle. With some of the smaller Municipalities, one could envisage them being virtually controlled by Corporate and external forces.

The Liberal Party in NSW, already mired in corruption, is attempting to hang on to power by extending the compulsory voting mantra now operational in Australia to businesses who currently have no interest in local elections. I submit this is flawed, corrupt and should be thrown out before it is too late.

Summary

The only possible conclusion I can come to on compulsory voting at Local Council level is that is wholly inappropriate; all it achieves is to entrench the powers of the major parties. Major political parties should not be allowed to be represented at Local Council level because they tend to do the bidding of state party hierarchies in Central Sydney, rather than attend to the needs of the local community, which is why Councils exist in the first place. We should not allow the system of compulsory voting to be further corrupted by forcing 'Corporations' based in Sydney's CBD to vote in Local Council elections.

The only real way of encouraging genuine participation in the political process at Local Council level is to grant Councils more authority so that people will want to participate. The current and proposed arrangements effectively narrow real power down to a few faceless people in Party Headquarters; this is not in the interests of the community that the process is supposed to serve.

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About the Author

Sydney-based Guy Hallowes is the author of Icefall, a thriller dealing with the consequences of climate change. He has also written several novels on the change from Colonial to Majority rule in Africa. To buy browse and buy his books click here.

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