Gympie Council Divisions

Gympie Council to Be Divided

Gympie Council to Be Divided – Decision Made

The ABC website reports that the Queensland Government has decided Gympie Regional Council will operate under an electoral divisional system for the 2012 election. Today (4/11/2011), Local Government Minister Paul Lucas says Gympie Regional Council will now have divisional councillors rather than undivided representation. 

Minister Lucas says he adopted the recommendation of the independent Change Commission.  The Queensland Change Commision (part of Electoral Commission Queensland), undertook surveys and collected submissions from Gympie residents after the Gympie Council failed to conduct a satisfactory survey and then completely disregarded the majority vote for divisional represetation.

The Change Commision findings were that the majority of Gympie residents wanted a return to divisional representation – representation that was summarily removed at the time of amalgamation in 2008 by self-interested Mayors and Councillors, again with total dis-regard to the democratic wishes of residents.

The Queensland Government decision shows a respect for democracy – a respect that is sadly lacking in all elected representatives of Gympie Regional Council. 

The upcoming Gympie Council election in March 2012 will give Gympie residents the opportunity to elect new Councillors – people who can be true representatives instead of the current insular, self-interested totalitarians.

It is time to ensure that the current Gympie Councillors are called to account and made to regret their self- interested decision to disregard the democratic rights of the people of Gympie.

 

Gympie Council Divisions

Gympie Council – Bad Decision on Divisions

Gympie Regional Council – Bad Council Decision on  Divisions

So Gympie Regional Council voted against introducing divisional representation at the meeting on Wednesday 9 March 2010 citing that a lack of response to their survey indicated that the community didn’t want divisions.

While this decision comes as no surprise because Councillor interest in self-preservation over-rides their interest in community representation, I find it difficult to accept that the whole process wasn’t a sham.

The Council was basically embarrassed into conducting “community consultation” on the issue and then the consultation process was undertaken in a half hearted manner by arranging a couple of obscure daytime meetings when most people can’t attend due to work commitments, a difficult online survey that required ratepayers to have the internet and an email address to complete and a few forms for available at Council offices/facilities.

This demonstrates that the only sincerity given to public consultation on the issue was to sincerely obfuscate the process ensuring that as few people could express an opinion as possible.

The local newspaper also showed it’s true colours as their reporting of the issue did not show any investigation into pros and cons of divisional representation or printing any survey forms to help their readers – a poor effort. 

Even a first year journalist could have done better and easily informed the readers that no divisional representation incurs huge financial liabilities for ratepayers without any local representation or accountability to help on their issues.

The right to divisional representation is basic electoral democracy.  This right has been removed from Gympie Ratepayers by an arrogant decision that should not have been able to have been made by this Council.

With 12 months to go to the next Queensland local Government election, the current Council having rejected divisions have ensured that it will be difficult for any person standing for election.  Prospective candidates now face the daunting and expensive task of conducting their campaign and building a profile across the whole Council area.

I trust that there will be some civic-minded people who will stand for election with a policy of implementing divisions and that the current Councillors will regret this decision.

UPDATE – 4/11/2011 – The Queensland Government has decided that Gympie Regional Council will re-introduce divisional representation for the 2012 Gympie election.  It is time to ensure that the current Gympie Councillors are called to account and made to regret their self interested decision to disregard the democratic rights of the people of Gympie.

Gympie Council Divisions

Gympie Council Divisions

Gympie Council Divisions

Congratulations to Reg Lawler for his efforts in “convincing” Gympie Regional Council to conduct public consultation on this important issue for Gympie Ratepayers.

For those that may not be familiar with the issue, prior to amalgamation, the Council areas had divisional representation – where the council area is divided and a resident of that division was elected to Council to represent the electors of the division on Council.  This system is the basis of Australian electoral democracy – Australia is divided into a number electoral regions and states are also have their own state electoral divisions where a resident is elected to represent that area e.g. David Gibson has been elected by the people to represent the Gympie region in Queensland Parliament.

Divisional representation is a fair and equitable system that seeks to ensure that the broader community is represented in Government.  Imagine a state without divisional representation – most of the elected politicians would be likely to be elected from the capital city leaving the rest of the stae without representation.

Unfortunately, divisional represntation was removed during the amalgamation process by decicions made by previous Councillors without any regard for the wishes or concerns of Gympie ratepayers.  Discussion of the whys and wherefores is un-neccesary here as this is history.

Given the State Governments recommendation that divisional representation should be re-instated, the Gympie Regional Council should review the previous stance against divisions.  In this review, Council should consult ratepayers and consider all aspects of divisional representation on the basis of determining the greatest benefit (and least cost) to Gympie ratepayers. 

It would be helpful if the local newspaper could actually provide a balanced report that informs readers of the results of an investigation into the reasons for the State Government recommending re-instatement of divisions with an analysis if the pros and cons of divisional representation instead of presenting what appears to be a one sided opinion (A few weeks ago, they presented an opinion (a bit of a lame tale of woe – look what the Government wants to do to us now) and the reporting in that issue seems to indicate an anti-division stance.

Perhaps they could also review S267 (3) of the Local Government Act 2009 and inform the ratepayers of the potential cost liability of holding a by-election to fill the office of a Councillor.  Without divisions, should a Councillor resign or become ill  leaving the position vacant, a by-election to elect a new Councillor is a full election across the whole Council area.  With divisions, such election is held in that division only.  I wonder if the current Councillors are aware of this liability and just how much a full election costs.

Without divisions, Gympie Regional Council is placing a huge liability on the ratepayer that could cost more than $1 million in the event of one of the Councillors being undable to carry out their duties for whatever reason. (Note: the actual cost for a full election is not available to us at the time of publication but $1M is a conservative estimate that does not include the inconvenience and disruption that results to all electors in the region). 

I urge all ratepayers have your say on this important issue by writing to Gympie Regional Council or completing the online form at http://www.gympie.qld.gov.au/displayprivacy.asp?ID=1348. 

Have a look at the increases in your rate notices for the last 2 years first though and remember that no divisions means a very costly by-election that won’t be covered in the annual budget and therefore guaranteed to result in more rate increases.

UPDATE – 10 March 2011:
Gympie Council rejects electroral divisions.  Read our view at Gympie Council – Bad Decision on Divisions

UPDATE – 4/11/2011 – The Queensland Government has decided that Gympie Regional Council will re-introduce divisional representation for the 2012 Gympie election. It is time to ensure that the current Gympie Councillors are called to account and made to regret their self interested decision to disregard the democratic rights of the people of Gympie.