Shire of Waroona president Mike Walmsley casts doubts over new local government watchdog reform

Waroona Shire president Mike Walmsley has cast doubts over one of the biggest overhauls of local government that could see the number of councillors in his area reduced to just five. As part of the sweeping reform package, released for consultation on Wednesday and to be introduced in Parliament next year, shires with populations of 5000 — such as Waroona — would have the number of councillors reduced to five. Mr Walmsley said the change could make it difficult to attract council members in the future. “(There is a lot of) committees and delegations we have to different organisations,” he said. “This will just get busier with less councillors. Also, if you have one away it just leaves four. “(I’m) not sure if that will work. It will make the role of councillors even more demanding and may lead to less attraction of councillors due to the time commitment and workload (and I’m) not sure if this is what they wish to achieve.” The reforms would also see a new watchdog with far-reaching powers appointed to investigate and fix dysfunctional councils as part of the biggest overhaul of local government in a quarter of a century. The local government inspector would receive complaints about elected members and chief executives and have powers of a standing inquiry to manage investigations. Big local governments would also have mayors and presidents elected directly by residents. A preferential voting system, already used for State and Federal elections and council polls in other jurisdictions, is proposed to replace the existing first-past-the-post method. A mandatory Statewide caretaker period would be introduced for all local governments before elections and new rules would determine the number of councillors on a council, based on the local population. Mr Walmsley said the council had three months to formulate a response to the changes. “I am not opposed to some of it, some of it is actually quite good,” Mr Walmsley said. “I am all for positive reform, and if this is part of it, so be it. There is not going to be a lot of opposition to it, and WALGA is supportive of it.” Local Government Minister John Carey said the changes focused on “early intervention” to avoid expensive inquiries that paralysed councils, such as the two-year City of Perth probe that cost $7.7 million. Mr Carey said he wanted to “extract any perception of politics” from process by making the inspector responsible for investigations. The Shire of Harvey was contacted for comment.