Submissions Tell A Story

The Local Government Advisory Board had to take account of many factors in coming to its recommendations. One of these was 'community of interests' - and who better to provide information on that than the people who would be affected by proposed changes.

So far, no one has looked very closely at the submissions made to the LGAB - apart, presumably, from the LGAB itself. When you do, some interesting features emerge.

The first is that very few proposals had more than 30% support. Many were below 5% support.

Those that did get strong support were ones for which there had been substantial community involvement - but the communities concerned (with the possible exception of Melville) were largely supporting their local Council proposal on the basis that it was better (less bad?) than any of the alternatives. We know, from the plebiscite in October 2013, that Vincent electors would have supported a proposal for Vincent to stay as it is if it had been possible to make a proposal in those terms.

The Minister's proposals fared particularly badly, with none receiving more than 30% support and only two exceeding 20%. Five of the minister's 12 proposals (ie nearly half) got less than 5% support. This shows just how badly he has misjudged things right from the start.

The only one of the Minister's proposals to be recommended by the LGAB (Swan-Mundaring) managed to get only 12% support. Compare this with the 75% support for the Shire of Mundaring proposal and one is forced to wonder why the Minister's one got the nod - other than as a consolation prize.

The answer likely lies in the Minister's proposal being compatible with the Bayswater-Bassendean proposal, rather than any other grounds, although the Shire of Mundaring proposal could have been made compatible with only small amendments.

The LGAB makes great play of the 'greater capacity' of the City of Swan to manage the transition - the Minister's proposal has Swan as the 'continuing' local government, but those resources would still be available with a straight amalgamation as proposed by the Shire of Mundaring. [Incidentally, this same issue arises with many of the LGAB recommendations, including Belmont-Kalamunda and Bayswater-Bassendean.]

One is forced to deduce that the Minister's proposal was selected here because the City of Swan one would require too much change to be compatible with Bayswater-Bassendean and the Shire of Mundaring one would actually have given people a vote.