Council & Business
2 March, 2023
Councillors in favour of single-member wards in electoral review
A single-councillor ward structure has been endorsed by the Central Goldfields Shire Council in its submission to the Electoral Representative Advisory Panel. As part of the Electoral Structure Review being carried out by the Victorian Electoral...
A single-councillor ward structure has been endorsed by the Central Goldfields Shire Council in its submission to the Electoral Representative Advisory Panel.
As part of the Electoral Structure Review being carried out by the Victorian Electoral Commission, councillors moved unanimously to back the single-councillor wards structure at Tuesday’s ordinary council meeting.
According to the report tabled during the meeting, the Local Government Act 2020 introduced several changes to local government representation including changes to the types of electoral structures councils can have.
The Act states that from October 2024, the structure for all councils in the state must either be unsubdivided, multi-councillor wards with equal number of councillors per ward, or single-councillor wards.
Currently, there are seven councillors from four wards in the Central Goldfields Shire — Liesbeth Long from the Flynn Ward, Chris Meddows-Taylor from the Paddys Ranges Ward, Anna De Villiers from the Tullaroop Ward, and Grace La Vella (mayor), Gerard Murphy, Wayne Sproull and Geoff Lovett from the Maryborough Ward.
The current structure is not allowed under the new Act.
On Tuesday, councillors voted in favour of the third option — single-councillor wards — which would lead to the splitting of the Maryborough multi-member ward into four distinct single member wards.
Noting the benefits of the system, the report said that single-councillor wards would ensure the councillors are local representatives of their ward, they would be “easily accessible to residents” and smaller communities wouldn’t be excluded.
Major geographical communities of interest are likely to be represented, the report states — thereby, “preventing communities like Bealiba, Carisbrook, Dunolly, Majorca, Talbot, Bowenvale-Timor, Daisy Hill from being poorly represented”.
Speaking at the meeting, Cr Chris Meddows-Taylor said that the submission had identified the most appropriate structure for the shire.
“I think it is a well-thought out submission. Councillors have spent some time working through [it and have tried] to get the best solution,” he said.
“The proposal is to retain the Maryborough character by calling [the new wards] east, west, etc, rather than giving them completely different names.
“That’s important because fundamentally there are different issues in our shire between rural wards and Maryborough residents and their needs, and this way while having separate wards in Maryborough, there’s still opportunity for Maryborough councillors and those four Maryborough wards to stick together [and work together on issues that cross those boundaries].”
Despite the different ward structures in the council over the years, Cr Meddows-Taylor said, councillors worked together to improve all regions.
“All councillors have always worked for the whole shire,” he said.
“That’s how it always has worked and I really believe that’s how it always will work and must work. So, irrespective of whatever decision [is made] it will be for the betterment of the shire.”
The other structural option, the unsubdivided system, would eliminate all wards and instead instate the Central Goldfields as a single municipality according to the report tabled at the meeting.
“I have in the past experimented [to gauge] the level of interest in the unsubdivided municipalities and I can say categorically, there is none,” Cr Meddows-Taylor said.
While the report states that the unsubdivided municipality has the potential to make councillors consider the interests of the shire as a whole, rather than focusing on their individual ward, Cr Geoff Lovett said the structure was not suited to meet the needs of all communities.
“I personally am totally against an unsubdivided municipality as potentially this could lead to a lack of representation with the smaller communities,” he said.
“It’s possible in an unsubdivided municipality we can have all seven councillors from Maryborough.
“Roughly 63 percent of voters live in Maryborough and that is why we’ve got four councillors — so there is a risk that the smaller communities will potentially not have their own councillor.”
Cr Lovett also highlighted criticisms against the single-councillor wards system and reiterated that it was still the best option for the shire.
“For the single-member option, which I believe is the only option we can go for — one of the arguments against that is the councillors will become parochial and as Cr Meddows-Taylor has said, that is not the case,” he said.
“Ever since I’ve been on council, all councillors, irrespective of where they come from or what their wards are have always voted in the best interest of what’s best for Central Goldfields Shire as a whole and that’s why I support this submission 100 percent.
“For us it is the only way to go.”