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Council Reform 2022/3 ...
This may represent how the city wards will be organised at the time of the council elections in October 2023. I haven't been able to find this on the City's website, but got it from FSN (see refs), where Michael Barker writes that the new wards may be called North, Coastal, Central and East.
I'm told by my East Ward Councillor Jenny Archibald that it's likely that the elections in 2023 will be held on the basis of the four new wards.
The Minister for Local Government in the McMahon Labor government, John Carey, a former mayor of the City of Vincent, stated in 2022 that there would significant reform to local government bodies, and that the process of change would start in October 2022.
Roel Loopers obtained information about the contents of the letter, and wrote an informative article about the consequences for Fremantle in his blog, which I republish here with his permission – as follows.
The Minister for Local Government John Carey sent a letter to all Councils, but the letter doesn’t mention specifically what is required of Fremantle in regards to reduction of the number of councillors etc. It’s a generic letter sent to the CEOs of all local governments that will be required to make some changes under the reforms.
The letter states that new requirements will be introduced to provide for:
• The introduction of optional preferential voting; (which will affect Fremantle – current system is first past the post)
• Directly elected Mayors and Presidents for band 1 and 2 local governments (no change for Fremantle as we already do this)
• Councillor numbers based on population; (this will affect Fremantle – details below)
• The removal of wards for band 3 and 4 local governments. (Fremantle is a band 1 local government so we can keep wards if we want to, although this will be subject to a review).
In relation to the number of councillors for Fremantle: we fit into the ‘5000-75,000’ population category, which means Fremantle can have between 5 to 9 councillors, including the Mayor (i.e., 8 + 1). We currently have 12 + 1, which means a reduction of 4 councillors as a minimum.
How this will be achieved and any changes to wards etc. is still to be determined and will be subject to a ‘Ward and Representation Review’.
The Minister has stated there are two ‘pathways’ that local governments can follow to meet the requirements of the reforms:
Voluntary Pathway:
If local governments chose the voluntary pathway, they are required to:
• Advise the Department of Local Government by 28 October 2022 of the intention to undertake a voluntary process, and include with that advice a ‘high-level’ plan outlining the potential changes to be implemented for the ordinary elections coming up in 2023 (and 2025 if it’s decided to transition over two election cycles);
• Initiate a ‘Ward and Representation Review’ to determine the specific changes to the structure of the council for the 2023 and 2025 elections. This needs to be completed by 14 February 2023.
Reform Election Pathway:
Under this scenario, all council positions will be spilled and an election would be held to fill the reduced number of seats, with a split between two and four year terms to re-establish an ordinary election cycle.
If local governments choose this pathway, they must advise the Department of Local Government by 28 October 2022.
This will also be the default pathway for local governments that do not advise their intentions by 28 October, and those local governments that choose to go down the voluntary pathway but then fail to complete the Ward and Representation Review by 14 February 2023.
So the next step for Fremantle Council to consider which pathway they want to take (to meet the 28 October deadline that will have to be put on an agenda sometime in the next month).
Then, if the council chooses the voluntary pathway, we’ll have to do the review that will provide recommendations on how to achieve the required reduction in the number of councillors and get the council to vote on that before February.
References and Links
Ministerial statement, 21 September 2022.
Roel Loopers' blog, 'What local council reform means for Fremantle', 23 September 2022.
Fremantle Shipping News, 'Frank Mofflin explains the local government changes', 18 May 2023.
This page incorporates material from Garry Gillard's Freotopia website, that he started in 2014 and the contents of which he donated to Wikimedia Australia in 2024. The content was originally created on 24 September, 2022 and hosted at freotopia.org/council/reform.html (it was last updated on 23 October, 2023), and has been edited since it was imported here (see page history). The donated data is also preserved in the Internet Archive's collection.