Marrickville Council has condemned the state government for the introduction of a bill that would make it compulsory for business ratepayers to vote in City of Sydney local government elections in 2016.
“At Tuesday night’s Council meeting, most Councillors, from all political persuasions, agreed this was incredibly undemocratic and simply another ‘Get-Clover’ move by the state government,” said the Mayor of Marrickville Jo Haylen.
“We also agreed that this legislation was hastily drawn-up and is ill-conceived.
“Our own legal advice is that the legislation is open to interpretation and that some businesses could even have up to six votes each.
“One of my colleague Councillors, a lawyer and a director of several companies, said that from their own reading of the Bill, they could be eligible to vote fifteen times in at least three different local government areas.”
Currently the laws only apply in the City of Sydney, however the state government would be able to introduce it in other Councils simply by regulation, requiring no consultation or legislation.
The City of Sydney Amendment (Elections) Bill 2014 was introduced into the Legislative Council by Hon. Robert Borsak, MLC (Shooters and Fishers Party).
The Minister for Local Government, Paul Toole, recently said that he sees this as being immediately applicable to Parramatta and Newcastle, and eventually to all Councils in NSW.
“The Bill is a blatant bid to garner more conservative votes and give sectional interests a new means to influence political decisions,” Mayor Haylen said.
“This plainly ridiculous piece of legislation says that land owners and business people should have more democratic rights than residents.
“If a state government doesn’t like the politics of a particular Council, they could simply regulate to give their traditional constituents a more powerful say in local government elections.
“You would think with the recent troubles faced by the Liberal Party in the ICAC, they might have thought twice about supporting a bill that could actually open the door to more corruption.”
If enacted, this Bill would also see an enormous administrative workload put on Councils.
According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, there are 6,884 businesses in Marrickville.
The number swells to 12,700 when home-based businesses with an active ABN are included.
The legislation could mean that for each business, the landowner, lessee, and business owner could all have two votes each.
Marrickville Council will write to the Premier, the Minister for Local Government, the leader of the Opposition and other parliamentary representatives advising them that Council has ‘deep concerns’ about these ‘undemocratic electoral rules’.
