Having lapsed previously, the legislation had only two days of sitting time to be passed before it impacted on electoral requirements and would fail to be in place for the October Council elections.

WA Local Government Association President Cr Bill Mitchell applauded Local Government Minister John Castrilli for pushing through the change from the proportional preferential voting system (PPV).

“There was very little time and significant resistance from the various government departments to have this change made in time for the October elections but the Minister has pushed through all that,” Cr Mitchell said.

“Given that the legislation had lapsed previously and that the timeframe was down to just two days, the Association was preparing the sector to accept that the change would not be made in time.

“Returning to the first-past-the-post system is an important issue for Local Government in Western Australia and is a significant and welcome achievement by the Minister.”

First-past-the-post is considered to be more transparent and less able to be manipulated by big political parties than the more complex PPV.

“Under the first-past-the-post system candidates need only to win the support of their local community whereas under the PPV system there is a greater focus on running mates and back room deals that mostly suit the organised, larger political parties,” Cr Mitchell said.

“The move back to first-past-the-post returns control of Council elections to the community and lessens the influence and potential manipulation by the major political parties.”

Introduced by the previous State Government, the comparatively complex PPV system was used for the 2007 Council elections. At the time, WALGA ran a television and print campaign opposing the introduction of PPV with about 100 WA Councils passing motions objecting to the new system, including more than 40 Councils who passed votes of no confidence in the then Minister.

Cr Mitchell said he hoped the common sense being demonstrated in the return to first-past-the-post would extend to changes to the WA Electoral Commission monopoly on postal voting to open the system to competition, including allowing Local Governments to manage the process.

Ends