No wards confirmed for Golden Plains Shire at next election

DESPITE spending thousands of dollars on a State government mandated electoral representation review twelve months ago, Golden Plains Shire will go to October’s municipal elections under the previous single ward system.

The 2019 review, run by the Victorian Electoral Commission, ultimately proposed the Shire move to a three-ward system with three councillors in one ward and two in the others.

It was presented to the Local Government Minister Adem Somyurek for ratification last May, however it went unapproved as updated legislation passed through State parliament that forces all rural municipalities to exist under a single ward, all councillors elected at-large structure.

That legislation, titled the Local Government Act 2020, was recently passed.

“We have delivered the most significant reforms to the local government sector in more than 30 years,” Mr Somyurek said.

“The new laws will make councils more accountable, democratic and help them deliver the services their communities need.”

The current multi-member and unsubdivided structure used in Golden Plains Shire was proposed in a draft report by the VEC last year, however after further community consultation the authority chose to finally recommend a new system.

That would have seen a three-councillor ward in the south-east of the Shire and two two-councillor wards in the north and central west.

The move was partly based on feedback to the VEC around disproportionate electoral strength in Bannockburn.

“[T]he desire to move to a subdivided structure is largely driven by dissatisfaction with rural representation under the current electoral structure, and concerns about the potential for decreased rural representation in the future,” the May 2019 report said.

“Many preliminary submissions raised concerns that towns and localities outside the Bannockburn area are not sufficiently represented.”

Shire mayor Cr Owen Sharkey was critical of elements on the outcome of the review process, agreeing that the desire of the community had been ignored.

“It definitely has,” he said. “I personally like unsubdivided wards, but we went through the process and listened to what the community wanted and it’s clear they wanted subdivided wards and then as soon as we stamped that off and put it on the minister’s desk, he decides to look the other way.”

Cr Sharkey also questioned why the Shire was required to undertake the representation review in the first place.

“It is annoying because when you’re speaking to ministers or politicians and you’re complaining about this $30,000, $40,000, it seems to be an insignificant sum of money to them,” Cr Sharkey said.

“For us it’s massive amount of money. We’re sitting down at the moment going through the budget and 30, 40 grand is a significant amount of money.

“But also, it’s an absolute waste of time and effort. A lot of residents, and council itself, invested a lot of time into the process… To turn around and say, ‘nup’ is really disappointing.”

Further measures included in the updated Local Government Act include mandatory training for anyone who wants to stand for council, as well as changes to processes and measures around municipal community consultation, transparency, planning, financial management and service performance.

Many of those changes Cr Sharkey sees as positive.

“I think the best thing that will come out of the education and training part is getting an understanding of what is involved to be a councillor,” he said.

“When I got on council I had no idea you were paid for the role, no idea of the support. It was very much you got on council and learned as you go.”

Local government elections in Victoria are mandated by act of parliament as four-year fixed terms with the next currently scheduled for late October this year.