The proportional representation voting system which applies to multi-member wards makes it easier for independents and minor parties to be elected,just as it is easier for them to be elected in the Senate or Legislative Council.
Darebin mayor Susan Rennie said a Victorian Electoral Commission review in 2007 had recommended the council move from single member wards to its current structure of three member wards to provide the community with better representation.
“Council finds it particularly difficult to understand the state’s rationale in moving all councils to a single member ward structure. Darebin does not believe this leads to greater community representation.”
The move to single councillor wards is among six new proposed reforms in the Local Government Bill to be introduced into Parliament later this year.
Other proposed changes include a cap on campaign donations and a process that would allow a councillor to be sacked after a community-initiated commission of inquiry.
“Communities deserve a way to hold their councillors accountable between elections – providing a mechanism for community petitions gives power to the people who elected the council to initiate an investigation,” Mr Somyurek said.
A Municipal Association of Victoria brief to councils said single member wards risked promoting parochialism rather than acting in the best interests of the municipality.
Just seven of Victoria’s 79 councils now had single-member wards,compared to 43 in 2003.
“The state has not provided any rationale as to why this is a bad thing,” the brief said.
President Coral Ross said the proposal for a community-initiated commission of inquiry,which could lead to a councillor being sacked,was also of “great concern”.
“This has never been done in Australia and could stop councils making hard decisions,” she said.
Monash mayor Shane McCluskey said the council was writing to the Minister with its concerns.
“Council strongly believes that the current four-ward,multi-member structure provides voters and the Monash community,as a whole,with fair and equitable representation.”
While single member wards could favour the major parties in some municipalities,it is not clear if Mr Somyurek’s move was driven by partisan concerns.
Senior party insiders toldThe Sunday Age they were genuinely surprised by the announcement. They insist it was not a response to party pressure.
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However the move coincides with an officialLabor push back into local government as the ALP seeks to reclaim political territory lost to the Greens.
An analysis byThe Age in 2017 detailed how the Greens had supplanted the ALP as the most prominent party in Melbourne's local politics,pouring hundreds of thousands of dollars into the 2016 council elections and colonising Labor's inner city heartland.
Many Labor members believe their loss of once-safe inner seats including Melbourne at the state and federal levels,is in part attributable to the party's ambivalence about local government.
In 2018,Victorian Labor formally decided to vigorously contest future council elections.