Local elections in NSW

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.