This is the personal blog of Ian Ker, who was Councillor for the South Ward of the Town of Vincent from 1995 to 2009. I have been a resident of this area since 1985. This blog was originally conceived as a way of letting residents of Vincent know what I have been doing and sharing thoughts on important issues. I can now use it to sound off about things that concern me.

If you want to contact me, my e-mail is still ian_ker@hotmail.com or post a comment on this blog.

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Friday, October 31, 2014

Single-Ward Fetish

Perth Voice, 1st November 2014
The Local Government Advisory Board seems to have a fetish for removing the local from local government. Not only does it tow the Barnett/Simpson line that 'bigger is better', it doesn't even like the localism inherent in having local governments divided into wards.

So we would have larger local governments that are, inevitably, more remote from local communities and then, to make things even worse, you won't have ward councillors to represent your interests.

Even with wards, larger local governments would mean more residents and ratepayers for each councillor, but at least you would have some chance of having a representative with some connection with your area and situation.

With a single ward, as Alannah MacTiernan and Bayswater Councillor, Chris Cornish, point out, election becomes the privilege of the wealthy or those with political parties or big business behind them.
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2 comments:

  1. Perth Financial PlannerNovember 17, 2014 at 9:08 PM

    Hi Ian,
    The deletion of the ward system is one fight the Libs didn't really need to have. I bet they wish the LGAB hadn't recommended that all LG's lose the ward system (except of course Swan and surprisingly Murray).
    You may be interested in my writings on the matter - http://chriscornish.info/2014/10/244/

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    Replies
    1. Ian KerNovember 18, 2014 at 10:36 PM

      Thanks Chris, including for your insightful comments on wards in your own writings. I encourage readers of this blog to read what you have written at http://chriscornish.info/2014/10/244

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