Reform of the Local Government Act 1995 and the October 2023 elections
The State Government is reforming the Local Government Act 1995 (the Act).
The reforms are aimed at ensuring local governments better serve residents and ratepayers. The reforms have been crafted in consultation with the local government sector. They are the most significant reforms to the sector in 25 years.
To ensure key election related reforms were in place before the 2023 local government elections, the amendments to the Act were divided into 2 tranches. The first tranche, which was passed by Parliament on 11 May 2023 focuses on electoral reform, which will strengthen local democracy and provide greater transparency and accountability.
The key electoral reforms that will be implemented for the October 2023 elections are:
To help local governments inform ratepayers of these changes and how they will affect the upcoming elections, we have created this toolkit.
Your support to help us inform and educate the community about the reforms is vital to ensure voters know about these changes and their vote will count at the October elections.
We urge you to utilise the toolkit and distribute the communications material extensively within your community in the lead-up to the elections.
The toolkit includes:
Download the video and the captions file to add to social media or video platform. We recommend adding captions for people with visual impairment.
Minister for Local Government
Optional Preferential Voting
Why Vote Local Government Plain English
Recently the State Government introduced the most significant reforms of local government in 25 years.
These reforms will strengthen the transparency, accountability and efficiency of local government, while enabling stronger local democracy.
Some of these reforms will have a direct impact on voting in the October 2023 local government elections.
You will find details of the reform on the Department of Local Government Sport and Cultural Industries website at https://www.dlgsc.wa.gov.au/local-government-reform
#LocalGovernment #reform #voting
The State Government is putting into action the most significant reforms to the local government sector in 25 years. The reforms will increase the transparency, accountability and efficiency of local government in WA.
One of the key reforms is the change from first-past-the-post system of voting to optional preferential voting (OPV).
This change will be introduced for the October 2023 local government elections which will now be in line with state and federal elections.
OPV will strengthen democracy by giving ratepayers a greater choice of candidates.
👉 https://www.dlgsc.wa.gov.au/optional-voting#Optional-preferential-voting
In fact it is really really easy and it is all about choices — your choices.
So just imagine there are 3 candidates 🧕👩👴
You can:1️⃣ Vote for just 1 candidate — just put a number 1 next to the name of that candidate2️⃣ Vote for some — just put a 1 next to the name of the candidate you like best and a 2 next to your second choice.3️⃣ Vote for all — put a 1 in the box for the candidate you like best and then a 2 for your second choice and a 3 for your third choice. If there are more candidates, you just keep numbering if you want to.
How easy is that?
Historically voter turnout in Western Australian local government elections has been very low. In 2021 the percentage of people who voted was around 27%.
To help improve this, DLGSC and WALGA have joined forces to create a campaign to increase turn out by 3%.
Play your part in increasing voter turnout by amplifying this campaign through your social media channels.
Here are a couple examples of ready made social media collateral you can use.