2020-06-15
The Victorian Greens say changes to the Local Government Act that mandated single-member wards on councils must be repealed following last night’s revelations of branch stacking by Minister for Local Government Adem Somyurek.
The Greens say it is clear that the move to single-member wards is part of the Labor Government’s plan to stack councils and subvert democracy.
Moving all councils to a single-member ward structure will increase the likelihood that councils are controlled by Labor’s factional warlords.
It is damning that Premier Andrews was prepared to let Somyurek set local government ward boundaries for elections, with the potential to stack them with his Labor factional mates.
In March this year the Greens asked ‘what possible reason that isn’t dodgy or self-serving could the Government have for introducing this reform?’
We now have an answer: single-member wards are part of a plan to stack councils and subvert democracy.
Quotes attributable to Victorian Greens acting spokesperson for local government, Sam Hibbins MP:
“Premier Andrews put Somyurek in charge of totally re-arranging the Council election system, with the potential to stack councils with his Labor factional mates.
“Councils should be places for local people to make good decisions for their community - not places for Labor factional warlords to wield power.
“Victorians have every right to be angry at this factional take-over of our local democracy. The Greens are calling for stackable single-member wards to be scrapped.”