13 November 2024
The Hon. R.A. SIMMS (20:06): I find myself in an unusual situation, because it is not often that the Hon. Sarah Game and I agree on an issue in this parliament, but I do have some sympathy for the argument that she has advanced here in relation to candidates displaying their nominations on council buildings. As I alluded to previously, members would be aware I was a former member of the city council.
When I stood for council it was commonplace for members standing for office, when they lodged their nomination, to have it displayed at the Town Hall. The benefit of that was that it gave members a sense of which wards were going to be contested, and gave members of the community who were planning on standing for council a bit of information about who might be running where. I have never seen that as being a problem in our democracy.
Under the previous Liberal government, there were some significant reforms of the Local Government Act. The Greens engaged constructively with the government around that and supported those reforms, but one of the changes that the Liberal government made was to get rid of that provision and to instead keep that information private, so that it was not clear who had nominated until after the nominations had closed. As a result, in the recent council elections we actually saw a number of wards, particularly in regional areas, that were simply not contested, whilst you then had contested elections or, in some areas, seats that could not be filled. To me, that does not seem like a very sensible way for our democracy to work.
If we have numerous good people who want to put themselves forward for office, surely they should get the information on who is standing where so that they can make an informed decision. So I do have some sympathy for the argument that the Hon. Sarah Game has made.
The Greens are inclined to support this bill, but if there are issues that arise in the context of the debate, if there is a cuckoo that is thrown into the nest somewhere along the line, then I will certainly revisit our position, and our view will be informed by the debate. But in principle I am inclined to support the honourable member's proposal.