The often-mundane world of local government has been thrust into the spotlight in recent weeks.
We’ve seen scandal and mass resignations at both the City of Nedlands and Port Hedland, while the Shire of Coolgardie’s financial troubles have led to a wave of fresh interest into, and reporting of, the goings-on at our local governments.
In response, Local Government Minister Hannah Beazley has threatened boundary adjustments whereby Coolgardie would be absorbed by the more prosperous and populous City of Kalgoorlie-Boulder.
A forced merger in everything but name.
Whenever controversy strikes, it doesn’t take long for critics to call for sweeping reforms.
A recent opinion piece in Business News (Tom Zaunmayr, August 11 edition) argued Western Australia’s 139 councils should be cut down to as few as 50.
On paper, it may sound practical, but in practice it would be devastating, especially for regional communities.
With decades of experience in local government before I entered state parliament, including time as president at the Shire of Dandaragan, I can say with certainty that collapsing representation in this way would strip away the local voices that are essential to regional WA.
In recent years, however, we’ve seen regional representation whittled away by the Cook Labor government to the point regional voices are becoming an endangered species in WA’s political hierarchy.
The government’s moves have included the abolition of country seats in the upper house, reforms that reduced the number of councillors, and the abolition of ward systems that guaranteed small communities a seat at the table.
It may surprise some to learn of the greatly expanded role local governments now play beyond the outdated mantra of ‘roads, rates, and rubbish’.
For example, local governments recruit and coordinate volunteer emergency services, and lead multimillion-dollar recovery efforts after floods, cyclones and bushfires.
They advocate for essential services and put their hands into their own pockets, spending hundreds of thousands of dollars to secure local GPs, health services and childcare, plugging gaps left by disinterested and uncaring state and federal governments.
They negotiate with multinational renewable energy companies, often standing alone against global players determined to impose projects without adequate community consultation.
Far from being redundant, local governments have become the last line of defence for many regional communities.
We need only look east to see the dangers of centralisation.
Queensland, with 30 federal members of parliament, secured more than $7 billion for a single infrastructure project during the last federal election campaign. WA, with just 16 federal MPs, scraped together about $500 million in infrastructure funding: all of it for projects in Perth.
That same neglect is mirrored in aged care, health, and disability services: the very same areas many regional local governments are required to step up to provide for their communities.
If local governments are stripped of their role in regional WA, who will step in to fill the void?
Bigger is not always better, and small can be a matter of perspective.
Consider the Shire of Sandstone, where a local government manages a population of around 100 people across a region the size of the Netherlands (33,000 square kilometres).
Contrast that with the Town of Claremont, home to 10,000 residents, where you could walk the entire length of the local government area in an hour.
Both are councils, but each reflects the diversity of our state. Trying to govern them with a one-size-fits-all model would be absurd.
Forced amalgamations may look neat in a spreadsheet or seem like a novel idea for under-pressure ministers seeking to reduce their workloads. But they come at the expense of identity, accountability, and community.
WA councils reflect the size and diversity of our state, and that is their strength, not their weakness.
The Nationals WA will always stand against forced mergers because we believe regional voices deserve to be heard, not silenced by a government in Perth.
