Latest / 360 with Katie Woolf / NT Representation Reviews Committee chair Sean Holden says City of Palmerston should establish wards ahead of the next local government election

Transcript

NT Representation Reviews Committee chair Sean Holden says City of Palmerston should establish wards ahead of the next local government election · 360 with Katie Woolf

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: You also know around the place right now there is
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: a local Government Representation review underway. What exactly does that mean? Well,
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: this review aims to ensure that all voters in local
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: government areas are fairly represented. So what exactly is the
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: review going to see and how can people have their say? Well,
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: joining me on the line right now is Sean Holden,
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: who is indeed the Local Government Association of the Northern
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: Territories CEO, but also the chair of the NPTI Representation
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: Reviews Committee Committee. Good morning to you, Sean.
• 0:34
  Speaker 2: Good morning. How are you going?
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: Yeah, really well, thanks so much for your time this morning. Now, Sean,
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: what exactly is this review all about?
• 0:44
  Speaker 2: So traditionally what would happen with councils across the Northern
• 0:48
  Speaker 2: terriatire which they're seventeen. They would after each local government
• 0:52
  Speaker 2: election it's every four years, the conduct a review to
• 0:55
  Speaker 2: see if they needed to implement wards and how many
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: electors that they would elect for their council. And then
• 1:04
  Speaker 2: in the Local Government Act twenty nineteen from the Northern
• 1:07
  Speaker 2: Territory Government, a new system was developed and that's Local
• 1:12
  Speaker 2: Government Representation Reviews Committee. It's not something that was asked
• 1:15
  Speaker 2: for by local government but was included in the Act,
• 1:18
  Speaker 2: and that consists of the Surveyor General, the Commissioner for
• 1:22
  Speaker 2: the Northern Territory Electric Commission and the CEO of the
• 1:25
  Speaker 2: Local Government Association of Northern Territory, which is ME in
• 1:29
  Speaker 2: this case, and that that person would be chair and
• 1:33
  Speaker 2: they would look at all the information and the data
• 1:36
  Speaker 2: and listen to submissions and the various councils and determine
• 1:40
  Speaker 2: if a council which didn't have wards, if they needed
• 1:43
  Speaker 2: to have wards.
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: Right, So, I know that this is something that we've
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: sort of spoken a little bit about in relation to Palmerstan.
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: So is it one of the areas that you're looking into.
• 1:53
  Speaker 2: Yeah, And in fact it's the only one. Excuse me,
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: our municipal councils. The City of Darwin already has wards,
• 2:04
  Speaker 2: Alice Springs does not, Catherine does not, Richfield does. And
• 2:09
  Speaker 2: so we looked at all of the councils and had
• 2:12
  Speaker 2: another look at Palmerston and we're suggesting that they do do. Indeed,
• 2:16
  Speaker 2: from the next local government election in twenty twenty five
• 2:18
  Speaker 2: have a ward system.
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: And so in terms of you know, Territorians being able
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: to have their say or those that live in those
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: you know, in that area. Is that something that they're
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: able to do.
• 2:32
  Speaker 2: Yeah, we've gone out to the consultation two times already
• 2:37
  Speaker 2: and this is there. Priminary report is out and we're
• 2:41
  Speaker 2: taking submissions until fourth of November, and people can do
• 2:44
  Speaker 2: it in many ways, but they're probably the easiest way through.
• 2:48
  Speaker 2: They have your say website and so far we've received
• 2:52
  Speaker 2: four submissions.
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: Is that it only four?
• 2:55
  Speaker 2: Yeah, we haven't had a lot of feedback on this
• 2:58
  Speaker 2: doesn't mean that people who don't have view of course
• 3:01
  Speaker 2: either way. So far we've had four.
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: So Sean, I guess you know, with this preliminary report,
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: there's been a number of recommendations as well, hasn't there.
• 3:11
  Speaker 2: Yeah, absolutely so. Parmesan's probably the most obvious, and we're
• 3:16
  Speaker 2: looking in that particular scenario for the introduction of four
• 3:20
  Speaker 2: wards and an extra elective member we think for better representation,
• 3:27
  Speaker 2: perhaps increased the membership from seven to eight. But we
• 3:32
  Speaker 2: also looked at a councilor in Central Desert which has
• 3:35
  Speaker 2: a ward system there and one ward where they traditionally
• 3:38
  Speaker 2: or certainly in recent memory, have found it very difficult
• 3:41
  Speaker 2: to get people to nominate. So we're suggesting that seat
• 3:45
  Speaker 2: go from two elected members down to one. The other
• 3:47
  Speaker 2: recommendation was that whilst our Springs at the moment doesn't
• 3:51
  Speaker 2: need our threshold of eighteen thousand people on the elect
• 3:55
  Speaker 2: enrolled to vote for there to be wards, they're around
• 3:58
  Speaker 2: fifteen nine and perhaps by the time of the next
• 4:02
  Speaker 2: review they may well exceed eighteen thousand and maybe in
• 4:07
  Speaker 2: line for award system.
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: Okay, so it does sound like there's quite a bit
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: sort of being looked at here, Suan. If there are
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: people listening this morning who are thinking to themselves, well,
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: I want to have my say on the Palmerston Council
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: and whether it should be wards, I want to have
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: my say on any of the various areas that are
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: being looked into. Is the best place for them to
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: head to that website that you'd mentioned earlier?
• 4:29
  Speaker 2: How do yours say? That's certainly the easiest. But you
• 4:31
  Speaker 2: can also go on to the Northern Territory Electoral Commission
• 4:34
  Speaker 2: website entech and you can certainly nominate in various sorry
• 4:38
  Speaker 2: you can put it in the submission various ways through there.
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: Well. Sean Holden, the Local Government Association of the Northern
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: Territory CEO and also the chair of the NT Representation
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: Reviews Committee. Thanks so much for your time this morning.
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: I appreciate it.
• 4:53
  Speaker 2: And thank you very much for your interest.
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: Thank you