Move to simplify voting

THE voting process for local government elections could be simplified as the state government starts its push to make voting compulsory for electing councillors.

Local Government Minister Nic Street tabled the Local Government Amendment (Elections) Bill on Tuesday, also revealing plans to introduce simplified preferential voting, or 1-5 voting.

Mr Street said he wanted to elevate the tier of local government to the level it deserved.

“It is a strange anomaly that we don’t require people to vote at local government elections, while it is compulsory and enforceable at Tasmania’s state and federal elections,” he said.

“As a former elected member of Kingborough council, I understand the importance and value of the decisions made by local councils, which are just as important as those made at state and federal government level.”

Mr Street said voter participation was not high enough under current rules.

“At the last local government elections in Tasmania, the voter participation rate was only 58 per cent and we need to improve the community’s engagement with the local government sector,” he said.

Greens local government spokeswoman Rosalie Woodruff said there had been previous attempts to make council voting compulsory.

“The Greens have previously attempted to change the Local Government Act to make voting compulsory in 2013, but this was voted down at the time by the Liberals in the Lower House,” Dr Woodruff said.

She said she would also like to see reforms requiring voters to be Australian citizens along with the introduction of caretaker provisions for local government elections. The government’s proposed amendment has been welcomed by industry leaders, who said it was the first step to more effective councils.

“We have long held the belief that local government in Tasmania is structurally and financially inefficient, lacks accountability, operates outside the real economy and imposes avoidable financial imposts and regulatory burdens on the Tasmanian community,” Property Council of Tasmania executive director Rebecca Ellston said.

Tasmanian Chamber of Commerce and Industry chief executive Michael Bailey said compulsory voting at federal and state levels “assures our elected politicians are representative of the electorate”.

“There’s no reason this same assurance and importance shouldn’t be given to local government,” Mr Bailey said.