Shire of Denmark council vote to reject State Government’s expected council election reforms proposal

The Shire of Denmark has rejected election reforms expected to be proposed by the WA Government this year, asking to retain both voluntary voting and the two-year election cycle. The possibility of proposing local government election reforms has been raised by Local Government Minister Hannah Beazley, but a formal proposal has not yet been raised. The WA Local Government Association released a discussion paper to WA local governments this month, allowing shires and cities to provide feedback on the possible reforms before they are formally brought to the table. The reforms would include full spill elections every four years, and introduce compulsory voting at local government elections. The Shire of Denmark officers’ recommendation to the council at its March council meeting on Tuesday night to was to reject both aspects of reform, keeping council elections to half spill every two years, and leaving voting as voluntary. Cr Kingsley Gibson spoke in support of the officers’ recommendation, saying that while he acknowledged compulsory voting was successful in State and national elections in Australia, the impact of compulsory voting could be different in local government. “Having people turn up to an election when they’re not particularly engaged in local politics and have very little knowledge of the candidates, you potentially have an increased risk of donkey votes and other careless voting that can skew the outcome significantly,” he said. “We should have the people choosing to take that effort to vote being those who’ve taken the time to consider the candidates and make an informed choice. “For those who don’t care enough to do that . . . forcing them to vote can can create reverse outcomes.” Cr Gibson also argued that with a four-year election cycle, local governments could become increasingly politicised. “Often those elections align with State elections, and so the ‘how to vote’ cards and the party affiliations come out, and you end up with a Liberal or a Labor local council or a Greens local council, and I don’t think that’s a good thing,” he said. “A great strength of local government, especially rural local government in WA, is the diversity of community perspectives that is represented. “If people are going to vote for someone because they’re a member of a particular party, I think you lose all that strength.” Cr Alex Sleeman spoke in favour of the reforms, arguing that while the possibility of a full-spill election resulting in the replacement of a whole council was possible, the chances of that outcome were low. He also said voter fatigue was high, particularly in 2025 when WA had State, Federal and local government elections, and that pushing local government elections to every four years could decrease that fatigue. When the reforms are proposed, WALGA will act as an advocate on behalf of WA local governments.