Criticism of voting changes continues

Deputy mayor says community will lose out

TOOWOOMBA Regional Council deputy mayor Cr Carol Taylor has backed mayor Paul Antonio’s criticism of the State Government’s proposed changes to local government elections.

Cr Taylor said while she agreed with numerous changes proposed in the Crime and Corruption Commission’s Belcarra Report, compulsory preferential voting and proportional preferential voting in undivided councils like Toowoomba would be “taking a step backwards”.

“My major concern is that the community is being disenfranchised by these changes,” she said.

Cr Antonio earlier this week said the introduction of preferential proportional representation could see a political party end up with a majority of councillors.

Preferential proportional representation means a group is allocated a certain number of positions based on how many

‘‘ MY MAJOR CONCERN IS THAT THE COMMUNITY IS BEING DISENFRANCHISED BY THESE CHANGES,” CR CAROL TAYLOR

votes they received.

Cr Taylor said the changes amounted to the State Government “taking away what is a fundamental right for (the community) to vote for 10 councillors and a mayor”.

The current system had worked well in the past, with the exception of the “failings of the electoral commission” in 2016 when local and state ballots overlapped, Cr Taylor said.

She also said compulsory preferential voting, in the case of TRC, which has seen more than 40 candidates vie for positions in the past, would result in voting outcomes similar to the Federal Senate.

Electors would either vote above the line and have their preferences allocated for them, or allocate their 40-odd preferences below the line.

Voting above the line would result in “what has happened in the Senate where they’ve got someone who brokers all those votes and you’ve got people getting into the Senate on 40 primary votes, Cr Taylor said.

Another proposed change would be paying candidates, groups of candidates, or political parties that receive more than 4% of first preference votes $1.57 per first preference vote. After the 2020 local government elections, that money will have to come out of councils’ budgets.

“When we have to pay money back to those candidates, the money will have to come out of our budget that would have otherwise been spent on a footpath or a park or something else,” she said.

The State Government believes subsidising electoral will reduce chances of corruption and open up elections to a wider range of candidates.

The changes to voting systems will bring them in line with current state and federal elections and “will mean every vote counts”, according to a government information sheet.