Whose Response Will It Be?

No prizes for guessing the answer.

Simpson said initially that he would support all the LGAB recommendations. Then Barnett announced his grand gerrymander plan for the City of Perth and Vincent.

Presumably the delay in making the announcement is the result of finding a way of letting Simpson save some dignity in the face of the Barnett jackboot.

I'd love to be the proverbial 'fly on the wall' at the 'closed briefing' - not so much to hear the announcement, which we'll all get 'after' 11am (assuming all goes according to plan), but to hear the responses of the assembled Mayors, Presidents and CEOs.

Lest We Forget - Remember Who Elects You, Eleni

Amidst all the justifiable anger about Col Pot's proposing to change the game and put in a gerrymander to disadvantage Vincent residents and ratepayers, we must not forget that, just a year ago, nearly 80% of those who voted in the Vincent plebiscite stated categorically that they did not want the City of Vincent to be abolished (http://ianrker-vincent.blogspot.com.au/2013/10/electors-want-to-keep-vincent.html).

It is time to remind Eleni Evangel, MLA for Perth, that her electorate includes the City of Vincent as well as the City of Perth and that two-thirds of her electors are Vincent residents. The people of Vincent will not forgive her at the 2017 election if she does not vote against Barnett's latest denial of democracy - or better still persuade Barnett to give up his latest grand imperial delusion.

No Taxation Without Equal Representation

Col Pot has said he will introduce a Bill for a City of Perth Act that will include a blatant gerrymander because "you [by which he means himself] wouldn't want residential voters to be able to control the central business district".

The WA Electoral Act insists that the number of electors for each state electoral district should be as near equal as practicably possible.

The Local Government Act requires that "the ratio of councillors to electors" to be considered in the establishment of wards. Any reasonable interpretation of this, especially in view of the 'superior' legislation (the WA Electoral Act) must be that there should be consistency across all wards of a local government - and, indeed, this is the case in metropolitan local governments that have wards.

Why should the electors of the City of Vincent have to put up with anything less.

Revolutions have been held to uphold the principle of equal representation.

More Sociopathic Behaviour From Col Pot

Col Pot doesn't like the LGAB recommendations for the City of Perth and City of Vincent, so he is picking up his bat and ball and going to play a game with new rules that suit him.

Alternatively, he is convinced the legal action against the Minister and the LGAB will succeed, so he's moving on to Plan B (or should that be Plan C, D, E ………… - he's changed tack so many times it's difficult to keep track).

Not only that, but he has brazenly stated that he wants to put a Bjelke-Peterson Queensland-style gerrymander in place to ensure that the majority of ratepayers in the new City of Perth would not have the opportunity to elect the majority of councillors.

Do I see a 'one-vote, one-value' legal action coming on - or, failing that, a 'no taxation without (equal) representation' community action that might include rates strikes.

Whatever the merits or otherwise of amalgamating Perth and Vincent (plus UWA and QEII), surely our members of Parliament will understand the importance of at least reasonably equal representation.

The irony, for me personally, is that if the current legal action succeeds, as seems increasingly likely, the only community to lose out might well be the City of Vincent.

Tony Can't Take a Trick

Local Government Minister, Tony 'Homer' Simpson, has been forced to delay the release of the Local Government Advisory Board report on metropolitan local government so-called reform proposals because he knows that drawing attention to it could cost the Liberals the seat of Vasse in Saturday's by-election.

Deny it all he might, the fact of the matter is that the Nationals have clearly differentiated themselves from what Barnett and Simpson are doing in the metropolitan area - and Simpson has publicly stated that country WA is next for the same treatment.

Of course, if he hadn't made the whole process so complex by continually shifting his ground and alienating people across WA (both metro and country) in the process, he might have been able to release the report more in line with his original 'timetable' - but that timetable was, itself, a huge piece of arrogance that assumed people would simply go along with what he and Col were trying to force on us.

More Costs of Forced Amalgamations

Barnett and Simpson claim they want Councils to work with each other - as well as to merge with each other (sorry - 'adjust their boundaries').

Since many Councils are already working with each other, through formal and informal arrangements, all of those arrangements have to be reviewed if the local government structure changes. So, as well as existing Council administrations having to be force-fitted together, there is a substantial cost of making the regional structures fit with the new Council boundaries.

Added to which, while it is prudent to anticipate change, all this is still hypothetical - the cost will be incurred in pursuit of an as-yet unknown set of changes that will quite likely not eventuate.

More Amalgamation Short-Sightedness - And, Yes, It's Col Again

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Inner-urban living was once the preserve of yuppies and DINKS (Double-Income No Kids), but has become more attractive to families as well. This means more pressure on education facilities in those areas - as I drew attention to here back in 2008 (http://ianrker-vincent.blogspot.com.au/2008/03/where-will-they-go-to-school.html).

Not too many years earlier, Colin Barnett, then Education Minister, amalgamated the Hollywood and Swanbourne High Schools into Shenton College, on the grounds that the two individual schools were 'too small' and that the single larger school would be able to offer more and better educational options to students.

The State Government also closed Scarborough (1999) and City Beach (2005) High Schools

Now we have a need to accommodate up to 2500 extra high school students in the area in the next decade and the Education Department is investigating options to increase accommodation at Churchlands, Mt Lawley and Shenton College, with Churchlands likely to double from 1500 to 3000 students 'in the next few years'. Three thousand students is horrendously large and endangers both learning outcomes and social development - large schools have negative effects on student identification with schools and, thus, participation and affiliation (http://www.edb.utexas.edu/hsns/HSNSbrief1.pdf).

A recent study of school size and learning outcomes in the USA concluded:

"the ideal high school, defined in terms of effectiveness (i.e., learning), enrolls between 600 and 900 students. In schools smaller than this, students learn less; those in large high schools (especially over 2,100) learn considerably less. Learning is more equitable in very small schools, with equity defined by the relationship between learning and student socioeconomic status (SES)." http://epa.sagepub.com/content/19/3/205.abstract

So yet again, Col, bigger is not better. It might be cheaper (although that is by no means proven - sounds familiar to those of us concerned about your local government merger-mania) but, even if it is, it is short-sighted economy - the proverbial 'spoiling the ship for a ha'porth of tar'.

Will you ever learn? It seems not, judging by the report in the West Australia back in June.

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And it should be of more than passing interest that the negative effect of larger schools on student achievement is substantially stronger where there is disadvantage and poverty  (http://www.saveourschools.com.au/file_download/2). And where are Col's implied mergers? Lockridge, Swan View, Balga, Warwick, Balcatta and Mirrabooka: Lockridge, Balga and Mirrabooka are in the 10% most disadvantaged suburbs in WA; Girrawheen is in the 20% most disadvantaged; and Swan View, Balcatta and Clarkson are in the 40% most disadvantaged. Only Warwick is among the less disadvantaged suburbs. 
[Source: Australian Bureau of Statistics, Socio-economic Indexes for Areas by suburb - http://www.abs.gov.au/AUSSTATS/subscriber.nsf/log?openagent&2033.0.55.001%20ssc%20indexes.xls&2033.0.55.001&Data%20Cubes&F40D0630B245D5DCCA257B43000EA0F1&0&2011&05.04.2013&Latest]

Need one say more?

De-Amalgamation Call on Col's Political Doorstep

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We all know of the de-amalgamations of local governments in Queensland after mergers forced by the previous state government there, but now here's a de-amalgamation call here in WA - from an amalgamated entity created by Col himself less than a year ago.

Okay - it's not a straight reversion to the former state that Synergy wants, but it does seem to be the case that economies of scale aren't all they're cracked up to be by Col, after all.

If Col and Homer get their way, how long before there are calls for de-amalgamating local governments here in Perth?

The Problem With Elections

It has rightly been said that the problem with representative democracy is that no matter who you vote for you always end up electing a politician. The Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band said this in a slightly different way in a song recorded in 1988, when Margaret Thatcher was the UK Prime Minister - although the record wasn't in fact released until the 1992 Election, by which time Thatcher had been replaced by John Major.

From Joe Public's point of view, the problem is not, as some have drawn attention to, the low level of participation in political parties but the total absence of opportunities to directly influence decision-making between elections.

In some places in the world, there is provision for ballots to be held to determine issues (eg many States of the USA and the Cantons of Switzerland), but these are often restricted to occasions when elections are being held and are, in any case, too cumbersome to deal with urgent and important issues.

There is, however, a burgeoning virtual community around the development of electronic petitions for a whole range of purposes, but electronic petitions do not meet the current requirements for presentation to, never mind being debated in, state or federal Parliaments in Australia.

However, the UK Government has put in place a formal process to co-ordinate petitions to Government/Parliament and to allow those that get sufficient support to be debated in the House of Commons. In the two years since this system was put in place, 7.2 million people have signed one or more petitions on the site and 19 of those petitions have been debated in the UK Parliament, having achieved the required 100,000 signatures.

On the basis of relative population, this is equivalent to 35,000 signatories in Australia or 3,500 in Western Australia.

The UK system could, no doubt, be improved - for example, I'd like to see "could be debated" changed to "will be debated", with a guarantee of at least half a day of parliamentary time and a vote.

Complex issues, especially those that have strong technical and emotional aspects, do not easily lend themselves direct democracy. Electronic petitions and a formal process for dealing with them would, however, at least provide an avenue for having them addressed in a public and transparent way.

Getting Ahead of Themselves - City of Bayswater

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I received this letter (right) from the City of Bayswater on Friday - interesting that it took two weeks to get to me.

Although the letter is generic, the envelope was addressed to me personally. I don't know how the City of Bayswater got my address, but I presume the address label was affixed by Carers WA, who do have my details on their database.

I find it interesting, though, that the City of Bayswater, which presumably specified the distribution, appears to consider that Mt Lawley is in already in the City of Bayswater. Not only is none of Mt Lawley currently in Bayswater, but even under the City of Bayswater proposal to the LGAB only half the suburb would be in Bayswater.

Anyone following local government so-called reform will know that the City of Bayswater has been a strong supporter of its own expansion from the start, but this seems to be going a bit too far. Here we have a local government that (a) doesn't know what is in its current boundaries or (b) is jumping the gun about what the LGAB has recommended, what the Minister will do with the recommendations and the outcome of the current legal action.

Even if the LGAB recommendation is for the Bayswater proposal and is endorsed by the Minister and the legal action fails, the City of Bayswater really should know that it would not have all of Mt Lawley. Indeed, transfer of the Mt Lawley part of the City of Vincent to Bayswater has not once even been mooted during the past 18 months - for which I, for one, am truly thankful.

Definition of Optimism - Busselton

The West Australian, 27th September 2014

I can't help but admire the optimism of the City of Busselton.

Whilst there is no doubt that even the spectre of local government amalgamations (forced or otherwise, depending on your point of view) is stressful for local government employees, if they do actually go ahead in the metropolitan area there is little doubt that country WA will be next in line.

So, if you're in a metro local government and stressed out by 'amalgamations', you might just be jumping from the frying pan into the fire, unless we can stop the whole shambolic process in its tracks.

Jumping The Gun - Armadale

The City of Armadale has presumably made the judgment that Homer's forced 'boundary changes' will go ahead and that the court action will fail.

I hope the Council is ready to explain to its ratepayers why it will be paying $300,000 for staff contract positions that are very likely not to be necessary.

Clearance Sale to Fund Col's Coliseum

Well, actually only to fund about one-quarter of the stadium vanity project - and then there's Elizabeth Quay.

Does anyone seriously think that these sales will get back our AAA credit rating?

Looking at some of these sites, such as the East Perth Power Station and the Old Perth Girls School, one can only hope that if they are to be sold there are appropriate heritage and planning controls in place - and they are properly enforced.

Even The West Couldn't Totally Ignore This…

…but they did manage to give it only seven short paragraphs and bury it at the foot of page 14.

Note also that it was written by Daniel Emerson, the state political reporter, with nothing from Kate Emery, the West's local government reporter.

It will be interesting to see if Kate writes (or the West publishes) anything on the potentially profound implications of this defeat for Barnett and Simpson.

More Cracks - and not just in the Façade

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The Labor motion opposing forced local government amalgamations, introduced into the Legislative Council last week, has been passed - without a formal vote, as the Government didn't want the embarrassment of a formal defeat in Parliament.

I congratulate those MLCs, National and Liberal as well as Labor, who stood up for democracy and good government to ensure the passage of this motion, introduced by the Hon Ken Travers, MLC, which read:

That this house —
(a) expresses its view that the Local Government Act 1995 never contemplated the use of boundary changes to amalgamate local governments;
(b) believes that the correct approach under the act is to abolish existing local governments and to create new local governments as this ensures that local communities are given a voice as intended by the Dadour provisions of the act;
(c) is of the view that any attempt to force local government amalgamations by using boundary changes to circumvent the intent of the Dadour provisions is an abuse of the act; and
(d) therefore calls on the government to ensure that any proposals for amalgamation of existing local governments involve the abolition of all affected councils and the creation of new councils.

I'm not holding my breath for Barnett and Simpson to see the writing on the wall, though, let alone being able to read and understand it.

Here We Go Again

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The situation in New South Wales might well be very different from here in WA - and the report in the Sydney Morning Herald suggests that the financial situation of local government is worse - but the issues are the same.

Those in favour of amalgamations emphasise financial issues - without providing substantial evidence that amalgamations would improve the situation. Indeed, the evidence is that the state government is part of the problem through requiring Councils not to increase rates each year by more than a standard percentage set by the 'Independent' Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal it established in 1977.

Annual Council budgets have been unable to reflect specific local circumstances for 37 years - no wonder they have financial problems and are unable to maintain infrastructure.

The NSW Government is offering financial incentives for amalgamations that far exceed the money made available by the WA Government, but unless it changes the 'rate-pegging' situation any benefit is likely to be short-lived.

Those who oppose amalgamations are concerned about community of interest and the fact that the NSW Government hasn't ruled out forced amalgamations. In that latter respect, the people of New South Wales can take some comfort from the fact that the next State election is due on 28th March 2015 - so it is unlikely that any action will be taken before then.

But the people of NSW need to be aware of the WA experience - electing a Premier who said that there would be no forced amalgamations didn't stop that same Premier from turning a promise into a lie.

Electing a Premier who simply says that he 'hasn't ruled out forced amalgamations' would be tantamount to accepting that forced amalgamations will happen.

There is a Crack in Everything - That's How the Light Gets In (Leonard Cohen)

National Party Ministers are to be commended for sticking to their State Conference resolution to oppose forced council amalgamations. In the Parliament, they voted against the Government - and now they are reported to have refused to take part in Cabinet discussions on the recommendations of the Local Government Advisory Board.

In many ways, it would have been better (if futile) if the Nationals had stayed in Cabinet to argue against the Government - but this would have bound them by the convention of cabinet solidarity. Perhaps by staying out they have maintained their ability to be true to their party conference resolution. We can but hope.

But, in any case, the cracks are appearing.

As political analyst, Harry Phillips, is reported as saying, the tension in Government is intensifying over council amalgamations and is threatening to split the Liberal-National alliance.

Even if it doesn't cause a formal split, it does at least allow a little more light into the debate.

Withers Gets It - And Fails to Get It

Simon Withers, Mayor of Cambridge, is spot on when he talks of the City of Perth's expansion plans being driven by ego.

West Australian 24th September 2014. Click to enlarge

However, he misses the point entirely when he talks about Vincent.

The community of Vincent does not want to be amalgamated with the City of Perth - 77% of voters in the October 2013 referendum wanted to keep Vincent as it is.

The Council of the City of Vincent doesn't want to be amalgamated with the City of Perth. It's formal position, set out in a Council resolution of 5 November 2013, is to support the community's view but to "strongly continue to campaign for the full inclusion of City of Vincent … if forced mergers are to proceed."

Add to that the oft-expressed view of the City of Perth and its Lord Mayor, Lisa Scaffidi, that two-thirds of Vincent has no place in the capital city and we have a recipe for a disfunctional local government with no community of interest.

And the ego doesn't end there. Last Thursday, the City of Perth Council resolved to "work closely with the Premier to establish an alternative path to achieving  City of Perth's key reform objectives", including special legislation for the capital city. In other words, it doesn't like what the Local Government Advisory Board has recommended so it wants to change the rules.

This arrogance is precisely why the City of Perth should not be entrusted with any more power and responsibility than it currently has and, arguably, the Minister for Local Government should call an Inquiry into the City Council.

If You Don't Win…Change The Rules

In the world according to Colin Barnett and Lisa Scaffidi, what they want is what must happen - and if it doesn't, it's because the world is wrong.

So if they don't get their way in local government so-called reform, it must be because the rules are wrong.

Of course, this is all of a piece with the previous post on this blog about Col bullying Simpson because he doesn't like the LGAB's recommendations.

Thanks to Bill Prince, Co-ordinator of the Canning Community Alliance, for drawing my attention to this. Having given away reading the Sunday Times many years ago - as a protest over its destruction of forests for masses of advertising and minimal news - I would have missed this.

Of course, the real question is whether Col would have the numbers in Parliament to push such an Act through, especially after hanging his hat on the LGAB process in the first place. It all smacks of petulance - both Col and Lisa - if you don't win, change the rules.

Sunday Times, 21st September 2014. Click to enlarge

Out Of The Mouths Of Ministers…

Minister Simpson has been reported to have said that every word he says or writes on local government reform is carefully checked and approved by the State Solicitor's Office before it is released or said by him. That being so, we can take it that the words attributed to him in the latest Local Government Update have the SSO stamp of approval - notwithstanding that they appear to admit some of the claims in the legal action currently before the Supreme Court.

He is reported as saying: "Given the overlapping and competing proposals, the Board's role has been to assess each proposal on its merits…". With 'competing and overlapping' proposals, it is a logical impossibility for the Board to assess each proposal individually without reference to other proposals that 'compete' or 'overlap' with it.

In other words, it cannot assess each proposal individually - and yet the Board has no power to combine inquiries into multiple proposals. This provision is not simply absent from the Local Government Act, 1995, but the Government thought it necessary to try to give the Board that power via the unsuccessful Local Government Amendment Bill, 2013, which has singularly failed to pass the Parliament. In doing so, of course, the Government effectively admitted that the Board does not have that power currently.

Simpson is also reported as saying that: "…the inquiries represented the most significant and complex task ever undertaken by the Board". This is self-evidently true, by the proverbial country mile (no apologies for not metricating), something that should give the Minister cause to reflect on the fact that it was never the intention of the Parliament, in setting up the Board, that it should undertake such a complex task.