Perth Voice Interactive

A PUSHBACK against preferential voting for in-house positions such as deputy mayor failed to get traction at Perth council this week.

Preferential voting was included in the Labor government’s recent reforms to the Local Government Act as a way to make elections fairer, but councillor Catherine Lezer says it’s overkill if councils are just putting together committees or choosing a deputy mayor.

“Given there’s only nine of us potential voters at City of Perth, the use of preferential voting is unnecessary and causes more administrative work than first past the post voting,” Cr Lezer said.

She says the change is supported by the WA Local Government Association which wanted Perth to put the issue before its next zone meeting.

A report to this week’s council meeting from CEO Michelle Reynolds says the local government department’s justification for imposing preferential voting on the basis that some council candidates were being elected with less than 5 per cent of the vote wasn’t really applicable to in-house decisions.

“When applied to the election of presiding and deputy presiding members of committees, where there are very few voting participants, the percentage implications are not as relevant,” she said.

Cohesive

“Especially given that the group of voters involved are in the process of building a cohesive council team.

“Options preferential voting counting can be time-consuming and create a greater margin of error for the administration.”

Councillor Raj Doshi wasn’t convinced and said preferential voting built a consensus for a candidate and there were no wasted votes.

“I for one an proof that without preferential voting and all the votes being exhausted, I wouldn’t be sitting in this position today and representing my community, so I vote against it.”

Lord mayor Basil Zempilas said despite the request being to support WALGA’s advocacy, he wasn’t sure about its ability to change the state government’s mind about the new rules.

“Having won one lord mayoral election under one system and one lord mayoral election under another system, you know, I’m pretty easy; whichever one they want to dish up we’ll have a crack at, eh,” he said.

Only councillor Bruce Reynolds supported Cr Lezer’s motion: “From what I’ve seen in most elections, generally the first preference has generally proven to be the best candidate for the role and sometimes the preferences result in someone who isn’t as qualified to get a position,” he said.

by STEVE GRANT