Open Letter To Ian Britza, MLA

Ian Britza, MLA, Morley

Dear Mr Britza

You have been much-quoted or misquoted in the media today on the subject of whether you might stand as an independent in 2017.

Whatever the rights or wrongs of the reporting, there was one very clear statement that you "uphold the truths, goals and objectives of the Liberal Party."

There are many in WA who currently think that would be a very good reason for standing as an independent, as the current WA Government, in particular the Premier, clearly does not "uphold the truths, goals and objectives of the Liberal Party".

For those of us who are concerned about the future of local government and of democracy in Western Australia, the past 18 months have been a time of great disillusionment with the political process in general and with the current supposedly-Liberal government in particular. I have heard many 'lifelong Liberal voters' state publicly that they will not vote for the Liberal Party at the next WA state election simply because of the appalling way that local government so-called reform has been handled.

In the case of your own electorate of Morley, whilst the suburb of Morley is in Bayswater, which sees itself as one of the winners out the chaos, half of your electorate is in the City of Stirling and a part of this (between Wellington Street, Morley Drive and Alexander Drive) has been recommended to be moved from Stirling into Bayswater. This includes the important recreation area of Dianella Open Space.

We know that the City of Stirling is very unhappy at losing 15% of its population, mainly to Bayswater, especially since there is no opportunity for residents to have a say in whether they wish to leave Stirling.

If the voters of Stirling are as unhappy as their Council, this would be a good reason for creating some distance from the autocratic and authoritarian actions of the Premier and the Minister for Local Government. 

One way of demonstrating that you do indeed uphold Liberal values would be for you to support motions in the Legislative Assembly that oppose forced changes to local governments in Perth. The Assembly has already passed two such motions 'on the voices' and the Legislative Council has passed another. A further motion in the Assembly was on the Notice Paper for today, having been adjourned from November last year - the 'chaos and confusion' have increased considerably since then.