Latest / 360 with Katie Woolf / NT Electoral Commissioner Iain Loganathan says City of Palmerston will be divided into three wards at the next local government election due to its population size

Transcript

NT Electoral Commissioner Iain Loganathan says City of Palmerston will be divided into three wards at the next local government election due to its population size · 360 with Katie Woolf

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: We know that the twenty twenty two Local Government Representation
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: Review has handed down the final reporter. It's been released
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: and determines a structure for each local government council to
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: ensure fair representation. Now, joining me in the studio to
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: talk a little bit more about the review, what it
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: entails and what the major changes are going to be
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: is the Northern Territories Electoral Commissioner but also a member
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: of the Local Government Representation Reviews Committee in Logan. Nathan.
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: Good morning to you.
• 0:31
  Speaker 2: Good morning, Katie Ian, Thanks so much.
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: For joining us this morning. Now, what was the major
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: reason behind this review?
• 0:37
  Speaker 2: Firstly, the major reason for this review is to look
• 0:42
  Speaker 2: at ward boundaries at local government and representation at local government.
• 0:46
  Speaker 2: In the past, the councils have undertaken this process themselves.
• 0:50
  Speaker 2: There were amendments to the Act in twenty nineteen saying
• 0:54
  Speaker 2: that like legislative Assembly, there should been independent process. So
• 0:57
  Speaker 2: this committee was established to look at to look at boundaries.
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: Now, what did the report find. It looks as though
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: there's a few quite a few things that it found.
• 1:07
  Speaker 2: So the report, the process started in March and we
• 1:11
  Speaker 2: released a primary report that made a couple of basically
• 1:14
  Speaker 2: up some proposals about some changes and certainly seeking feedback
• 1:18
  Speaker 2: from the council and the general public. But probably the
• 1:22
  Speaker 2: main change that the report has proposed then and determined
• 1:27
  Speaker 2: is that the City of Palmerston will have wards at
• 1:30
  Speaker 2: the next local government election in twenty twenty five.
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: Yeah, Now, why has this decision been made Because my
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: understanding is that the Palmerston Council were not too keen
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: on this happening.
• 1:40
  Speaker 2: Look, certainly the City of Palmerston Council weren't keen on
• 1:45
  Speaker 2: the introduction of wards, and we met with the council
• 1:48
  Speaker 2: three times and certainly a lot of correspondence between ourselves
• 1:53
  Speaker 2: and the council. All of that's available on the website,
• 1:55
  Speaker 2: the NTC website, So we're certainly trying to be open
• 1:59
  Speaker 2: and transparent out this. But councils didn't support the introduction
• 2:02
  Speaker 2: of wards for their reasons. For us, the committee just look,
• 2:06
  Speaker 2: really it's just a matter of population size. Palmerston is
• 2:10
  Speaker 2: a growing city. It's got forty thousand electors. At some
• 2:14
  Speaker 2: point you're really going to have to introduce wards, and
• 2:17
  Speaker 2: we just felt that this was the right time in
• 2:21
  Speaker 2: terms of putting in a structure for representation into the future.
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: And so were there other factors that were considered as
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: well or did it majorly just come down to population.
• 2:29
  Speaker 2: Look, certainly a population was a factor. We look at
• 2:34
  Speaker 2: issues in terms of like communities of interest and other
• 2:38
  Speaker 2: factors that are in the act. But really it's from
• 2:42
  Speaker 2: the committee's perspective you look at wards two scenarios. If
• 2:46
  Speaker 2: you look at the regional councils just based on their size,
• 2:49
  Speaker 2: even though it's a low population, you need wards so
• 2:52
  Speaker 2: that certain communities have representation at local government with municipal councils. Certainly,
• 2:57
  Speaker 2: once it gets to a certain size, and you certainly want,
• 3:01
  Speaker 2: you know, electors to know who they're voting for. You know,
• 3:05
  Speaker 2: wards just make a little bit more sense in terms
• 3:08
  Speaker 2: of in terms of you know, large and growing communities.
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: Now I suppose people will be thinking, well, what's what
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: are the real positives to changing it? If things weren't
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: broken in Palmerston, why are we trying to fix some.
• 3:19
  Speaker 2: Look, look, certainly things aren't broken in Palmerston, and you
• 3:23
  Speaker 2: know this is certainly no reflection on the current current council.
• 3:26
  Speaker 2: This is really looking at the next election and future elections.
• 3:30
  Speaker 2: But look, you know some of the advantages of wards
• 3:34
  Speaker 2: as like I said, members are more likely to be
• 3:36
  Speaker 2: known by their constituents. You know, each member can focus
• 3:41
  Speaker 2: on local issues as well as a council wide issues,
• 3:45
  Speaker 2: and you know, there's you would hope that there would
• 3:48
  Speaker 2: be more diversity between council members if they're from different
• 3:53
  Speaker 2: geographical parts of the of the council area.
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: So is it a situation sometimes where the number of
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: councilors that might come from one area of Palmerston, you
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: know sort of well that area might be overrepresented. It
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: over represented.
• 4:07
  Speaker 2: Look, you know, Palmerston's a certainly a big place with
• 4:12
  Speaker 2: with with another a number of suburbs and you know
• 4:16
  Speaker 2: a little bit like Darwin. Darwin's got four wards and
• 4:21
  Speaker 2: you know it's it kind of it provides a greater
• 4:26
  Speaker 2: probability of diversity by having wards.
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: And do we know what those wards are going to
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: be called at this stage?
• 4:34
  Speaker 2: Look? Not at this stage. In the report, the committee
• 4:38
  Speaker 2: has proposed number of names, but sort of suggested that
• 4:43
  Speaker 2: more consultation be done with the City of Parmson. It's
• 4:46
  Speaker 2: the minister that determines the names. What I should also
• 4:49
  Speaker 2: say is that the report actually has two scenarios for
• 4:52
  Speaker 2: Palmerston because currently Palmerston has seven councilors us the report
• 5:01
  Speaker 2: recommends that be increased to eight.
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: Right, so on extra counselor as well.
• 5:05
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it recommends because but that is a decision for
• 5:08
  Speaker 2: the minister. So we have a scenario there of three
• 5:11
  Speaker 2: wards with seven members and three wards with eight members,
• 5:16
  Speaker 2: which is our recommendation in relation to what the ward
• 5:18
  Speaker 2: boundary should be.
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: And fundamentally it will come down to being a decision
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: by the minister.
• 5:22
  Speaker 2: That's correct.
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: Yeah, Now tell me when is this change going to
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: come into effect?
• 5:27
  Speaker 2: So the change will come intoffect at the next local
• 5:29
  Speaker 2: government election in August twenty twenty five.
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: Okay, so not too far away. And what will what
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: mean for the people of Palmerston do you reckon?
• 5:36
  Speaker 2: So what will mean for the people of Palmerston is
• 5:38
  Speaker 2: that firstly, we would hope that their ballot paper is
• 5:42
  Speaker 2: a lot smaller because rather than having one ballot paper
• 5:45
  Speaker 2: for the whole of Palmerston, you're going to have three
• 5:48
  Speaker 2: ballot papers for each of those wards. So hopefully it'll
• 5:50
  Speaker 2: be easier to cast a formal vote and hopefully they
• 5:53
  Speaker 2: will know who the people are that they're voting for.
• 5:57
  Speaker 2: So in one sense, you know very little change, but
• 6:03
  Speaker 2: you know in terms of like you know to the
• 6:06
  Speaker 2: members of Palmerston now and in the future, you know
• 6:10
  Speaker 2: what we would hope for is you know, while you're
• 6:12
  Speaker 2: still representing Award on the council, you're representing the whole community.
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: Well, no doubt, we'll try and get the Mayor of
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: Palmerston on the show and get her reaction. Towards the
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: beginning of next week, I'd say I before I let
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: you go, though, can I find out the hour if
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: you're a by election? It's not too far away now,
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: is ash?
• 6:29
  Speaker 2: That's correct? So we have the election date on the
• 6:32
  Speaker 2: eighteenth of March. Given the nature of that division, most
• 6:36
  Speaker 2: of it will be done by mobile polling and that'll
• 6:39
  Speaker 2: start at the six to March. But the election itself
• 6:42
  Speaker 2: will will kick off on the twenty third of February
• 6:45
  Speaker 2: with the issue of the.
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: Red And I know that candidates and all that kind
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: of thing come down to being decisions made by the
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: political parties. But when will we know? What date will
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: that be known?
• 6:55
  Speaker 2: Look, it'll be known about a week after the issue
• 7:01
  Speaker 2: of the writ. So about the end of this month
• 7:04
  Speaker 2: we'll have the declaration of nominations and obviously there'll be
• 7:07
  Speaker 2: some press in relation to who those candidates are.
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: And I know as well next year as I understand,
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: Actually sorry, this year, I keep thinking that we're still
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: in last year. This year, there is going to be
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: some further work into the redistribution, isn't there for the
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: northern territory.
• 7:22
  Speaker 2: Look, that's correct. So this is a separate process. So
• 7:26
  Speaker 2: there's a redistribution of legislative assembly boundaries and that process
• 7:30
  Speaker 2: will kick off in a couple of weeks.
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: And what does that look into similar to what you've
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: done with the council wards or could it be a
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: situation where some of those boundaries change a little bit.
• 7:40
  Speaker 2: Look, like I said, with the local government, it was
• 7:43
  Speaker 2: just about the ward boundaries and the external boundaries weren't
• 7:47
  Speaker 2: something that we looked at together. With legislative assembly, it's
• 7:50
  Speaker 2: totally different, right, So we look at the whole of
• 7:53
  Speaker 2: the territory. There's twenty five seats, we look at the
• 7:55
  Speaker 2: current enrollment numbers, we look at the population, and we've
• 7:58
  Speaker 2: sort of determined in terms of like what the boundaries
• 8:02
  Speaker 2: should be so that at the next election, at the
• 8:05
  Speaker 2: election next year, there should be as equal number of
• 8:09
  Speaker 2: people in each seat as possible.
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: Okay, so we could actually see some changes I suppose
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: to some of those seats.
• 8:15
  Speaker 2: Yes, look absolutely, and we certainly are going to be
• 8:19
  Speaker 2: keen to get feedback from the public and general stakeholders.
• 8:22
  Speaker 2: So if you go into our website, I think it
• 8:25
  Speaker 2: goes up today, there'll be some data there in relation
• 8:28
  Speaker 2: to what the current numbers are and information and relation
• 8:31
  Speaker 2: to how you can put in a submission, so the
• 8:33
  Speaker 2: process kicks off. Like I said at I think the
• 8:36
  Speaker 2: twenty fourths of this month and the first part is
• 8:39
  Speaker 2: a month given to people to put in submissions for
• 8:41
  Speaker 2: the committee to consider.
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: Well and Electoral Commissioner Ian Logan, Nathan always good to
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: catch up with you. Thank you so much for your
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: time this morning.
• 8:48
  Speaker 2: Thank you, Katie,