Well Done, John Day

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It isn't often a Cabinet Minister, even in his other role as a local member, breaks ranks and criticises a government decision.

I congratulate John Day on standing up for his community (as reported in the West Australian - see right).

There can be legitimate and sincerely-held differences of view on the future of local government - but there should be no dissent from the democratic principle of communities having a say in how they are governed - as, indeed, the Local Government Act requires for amalgamations. The current process has, as Day highlights, evaded the democratic principle by using 'boundary adjustments' when the reality is an amalgamation. 

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This is particularly pertinent for the Shire of Kalamunda, as the Local Government Advisory Board has not justified choosing the Belmont (boundary adjustment) proposal over the Kalamunda (amalgamation) proposal - despite their being otherwise identical. The only stated 'justification' is "greater organisational capacity to handle the merger process" - which an only mildly-cynical reader would interpret as the Belmont proposal towing the government line on 'boundary adjustment' rather than 'amalgamation'.

It is particularly relevant here that the Local Government Act, under which the local government reform process has, to-date, been proceeding, has as one of its objectives "greater community participation in the decisions and affairs of local governments" (section 2.4 (2) (b)). Surely, in choosing between two otherwise-similar proposals, the LGAB and the Minister should favour the one that gives the community a say.

There are other 'boundary adjustments' announced by the Premier and Minister Simpson yesterday that are also effectively amalgamations. These include Subiaco and Cambridge, Gosnells and Canning, Swan and Mundaring, Bayswater and Bassendean, Armadale and Serpentine-Jarrahdale, even though they may also involve some genuine boundary adjustments.

The case of the City of Vincent and City of Perth raises similar issues - the LGAB recommended the City of Vincent proposal (with minor modifications), which would have given electors the opportunity of calling for a poll. In proposing a separate City of Perth Act, the Premier has effectively removed this opportunity from the electors not only of Vincent but also of the City of Perth.

The Premier's City of Perth proposal raises another important issue of democracy, as he is clearly proposing that some electors be more equal than others. To make this ‘work’ on his terms, he will put a Bjelke-Peterson Queensland-style gerrymander in place to disenfranchise the people of Vincent - as he said last week, “you would not want residential voters to be able to control the central business district”.This is on top of the existing weighting that already allows a ‘body corporate’ to have two votes.

This would be a gross denial of democracy that I hope that John Day and other Members of our Parliament would strenuously oppose as being incompatible with our democratic society.