When the NSW Minister for Local Government, Ron Hoenig, announced an inquiry into the City of Liverpool in July, it seemed clear that the council was headed down the path seen by councils like Shellharbour, Warringah, Wingecarribee, Wollongong and Central Coast in the past. In the dying days of a council term, the state government intervenes and sacks the council, appoints administrators and delays the election. Indeed this is exactly what happened to the City of Liverpool just before the 2004 council election.
In most of these cases, the council is left without an elected council until the next statewide council election – although in the case of Shellharbour and Wollongong, the newly-elected Coalition state government brought forward their election to a year before the rest of the state.
At the time I stopped work on my Liverpool council guide. I didn’t do any more work on candidates, and expected the election to not proceed.
But that isn’t what happened. The election process continued ahead, since the state government never actually got around to suspending the council after giving them a week to show reason they shouldn’t be suspended. Earlier this week, a court case found that the investigation could proceed, opening the door for Hoenig to cancel the election, but a lot had already happened by that point.
Nominations were received and declared in much the same way as every council (conducted by the private Australian Election Company, who is also running the Fairfield election). Postal vote packs are already going out, and pre-poll was due to open next Monday.
I am not here to defend the current council administration, led by Liberal mayor Ned Mannoun, but I wonder why this process never has a role for local residents in judging the behaviour of councils in these sorts of situations.
In the case of Liverpool, Mannoun’s hold on his office is not strong. He was elected mayor in 2012, lost the job in 2016 and won it back in 2021. In 2021, he won 51.27% of the mayoral vote after preferences.
And the mayoral seat also decided who was in control of the council. The other ten seats split 4 to Labor, 4 to Liberal and two to independents who quickly split, with one siding with Labor and the other Liberal. That means that the mayoralty gave the Liberal Party and their independent ally a 6-5 majority. A swing to the left could see the council change direction.
If the allegations against the council are as bad as the Minister says, surely this is the kind of thing that should factor into the judgement of the voters.
If a state or federal government faced these issues there would be no question of suspending elections – but it could well be the kind of thing that leads to a new government taking power. Accountability in local government isn’t as robust at higher levels, but we should be trying to give space for democracy to play its part. In the case of Liverpool, it seems quite likely that a new council can set another direction, and they should be given that chance.
If you want to read more, check out my guide to the City of Liverpool election.