Voters in ten NSW local councils won’t just be electing councillors this month, but will also be voting on questions put on the ballot by their council. In eight councils, they’ll be considering binding referendums that would change the council’s constitution. In two other councils there will be non-binding polls (or plebiscites) on policy issues. There are 14 distinct questions across those ten councils.
As a follow-up to my 2021 blog post, I am going to run through each of these questions.
Four councils are proposing a reduction in the size of their council. I will briefly touch on these questions, but I am planning another post specifically addressing arguments in this area in the next few days.
Three councils are proposing a change to how their mayor is elected: in two cases, this would involve a switch from the council electing the mayor to the direct election of the mayor. In Uralla, they are proposing the opposite.
Two small rural councils are proposing the abolition of their wards. Bizarrely in one case a council has two distinct questions proposing either the abolition or retention of their wards. In two other urban councils, they are proposing a reduction in council size which would also necessitate a reduction in the number of wards.
Central Coast
Do you favour a reduction in the number of Central Coast Councillors from fifteen to nine? This will result in three Wards with each Ward electing three Councillors.
This council was sacked in 2021 and has been run by state-appointed administrators since that time, and this referendum proposal has come entirely from those administrators.
I am strongly opposed to this referendum. Central Coast is one of the largest councils in Australia and would be far larger than any other nine-councillor council if the referendum was carried.
I also think there are significant democratic problems with an administrator appointed to deal with financial issues proposing such a dramatic change to the council’s constitution while the council is lacking elected officials.
I will return to this topic in another post.
Coffs Harbour
The Coffs Harbour Jetty foreshore will be redeveloped. Do you agree that some of the foreshore land should be used for multi-level private residential development?
This is a non-binding poll. I don’t know any of the context, but I wonder if this is Coffs Harbour’s own little YIMBY vs NIMBY debate.
Federation
- Do you believe that the forced amalgamation by the State Government in 2016 was a mistake?
- Should the State Government compensate ratepayers for the ongoing costs of the amalgamation?
- Do you support that Council should approach the State Government to guarantee representation for the former Urana Shire?
Federation has proposed three non-binding polls that relate to the amalgamation of the Corowa and Urana councils, but also the particular representation dilemma for Urana.
The former Corowa Shire had a much larger population than Urana, to the point where Urana is proportionally entitled to just one councillor on the amalgamated council, even though there are currently two councillors in that area.
There is some demand for Urana maintaining some representation, even though there hasn’t been a serious danger of them losing their representation.
If they want to make it even more likely that the former Urana shire maintains representation, a more sensible solution would be to increase the number of councillors and thus reduce the quota needed to win a seat.
Greater Hume
Currently Greater Hume Council is divided into three wards that elect 9 councillors in total.
- Do you favour abolishing this ward system in favour of a single area consisting of all voters that elects 9 councillors?
- Do you favour making no change to this system; that is three wards and 9 councillors remain?
It’s easy to understand what Greater Hume is proposing – an abolition of their current three wards and replacing it with a single contest for all nine seats – but have done it in a very confusing way.
They have asked two questions: one where voting “Yes” is an endorsement of the abolition of wards, and one where voting “Yes” is an endorsement of the continuation of the wards. If someone votes the same way on both ballots, they will be contradicting themselves.
It will be an interesting test of how much people pay attention to what they are voting on, and how asking a question in different ways changes the outcome.
If both referendums pass with a Yes vote, or both fail with a No vote, it’s hard to say what that means.
Hilltops
Do you want a reduction in the number of Hilltops Council Councillors from eleven to nine?
This proposed reduction in council size is more defensible than Central Coast. Hilltops has a population of under 20,000 people. Of the 57 councils with a smaller population, just three have 12 councillors and another six have ten councillors. So while there is a range, the council would fit much closer to similarly-populated councils with nine councillors.
Kiama
The Mayor of Kiama Municipality is currently elected every two (2) years by the nine (9) Councillors.
Do you want to change to the direct (popular) election of the Mayor by the voters of the Kiama Municipality, for a four (4) year term, with the number of Councillors (including the Mayor) remaining at nine (9)?
This is straightforward. One of the nine council seats would be set aside for a directly-elected mayor.
I’m generally not a fan of directly-elected mayors, but I won’t dwell on it here.
Interestingly a Kiama councillor had given me a heads-up that he was putting a motion to the council to cut the size of the council and I put in a submission opposing the motion. I never heard of this again, but this other referendum never turned up on the ballot.
Kyogle
Do you favour the election of the Mayor by electors for a four-year term with the number of wards reduced from three to two, each ward comprising of four councillors, plus a popularly elected Mayor?
Kyogle’s council is currently elected by three wards, with each of the wards electing three councillors, and the mayor is elected by the council.
With a change to a directly-elected mayor, you would either need to add an additional council seat (as Ryde is doing this year, going from 12 to 13 seats) or to restructure the wards. Kyogle has opted for the latter.
I am not a fan of directly elected mayors, but I do think that small rural councils shouldn’t use wards, so I think a reduction in wards is a slight improvement.
I read this opinion piece decrying how the referendum is tying together two different issues, but it’s not easy to separate them. In order to separate them, you would need to tie the direct election of the mayor in with an increase in the size of the council.
Port Macquarie-Hastings
Do you favour a reduction in the number of Port Macquarie-Hastings Councillors from nine to seven, comprising the Mayor and six Councillors?
This is not quite as outrageous as Central Coast, but I think a seven-member council would be too low for Port Macquarie.
Most of the councils with seven seats have a population under 50,000. If Port Macquarie-Hastings switched from nine to seven, they would be much larger than all but one of the other councils in that category. The other aberration is Tweed, with a population of almost 100,000 and is desperately in need of a significant increase in the council size.
Indeed, amongst councils with nine councillors, Port Macquarie-Hastings is one of the most populous. Putting aside Camden (which has boomed in population and should probably have closer to 15 councillors), Port Macquarie-Hastings is just 2,000 people away from taking the lead. You could argue Port Macquarie-Hastings actually needs an increase in council size to fit in with councils of a similar population.
Uralla
- Are you in favour of the Mayor being elected by the Councillors?
- Are you in favour of removing the current ward system so that all electors vote for all Councillors that represent the Uralla Shire Council area?
Uralla has chosen to separate these questions, unlike in Kyogle. The council currently exists of nine councillors: a directly elected mayor, and four councillors each from two wards.
If both proposals pass, the council will still have nine councillors, but elected as one big group.
It’s not clear to me what happens if one proposal passes but not the other. If the mayoral referendum passes but they maintain their existing 2×4 ward system, presumably they would need to reduce the council size to eight. If the mayoral referendum fails but the second proposal passes, they could elect those eight councillors at large.
Woollahra
Woollahra Municipal Council currently has 15 Councillors. Do you favour reducing the total number of Councillors from 15 to 9?
Please note that a reduction in the number of Councillors will result in a reduction of wards across the Woollahra Municipal Council Local Government Area, likely to be a reduction of 5 wards to 3.
Woollahra is proposing exactly the same change as Central Coast, but it’s much more justifiable.
Woollahra is one of the least populous councils in Sydney, and has a much smaller population than any other council with 15 councillors. Woollahra has a population of almost 55,000 as of 2023, but every other 15-councillor LGA has a population of 140,000 or more.
Woollahra’s population would fit in well with the types of councils that currently have nine councillors.