Shire of Harvey to support optional preferential voting at 2025 elections to stop “single issue” candidates

A South West shire has revealed it wants council voting changes brought in last year to continue amid claims from councillors it prevents “single issue” candidates from being elected.

It comes after the Shire of Harvey was asked by the WA Local Government Association to make its positions clear around how it would like to manage local elections before the next State Council meeting in December.

The council made several amendments to the staff recommendations at last week’s meeting, including rejecting their advice to scrap optional preferential voting, which was introduced at the October 2023 election.

Cr Craig Carbone moved the amendment, arguing optional preferential voting ”eliminates the issue” of single issue candidates getting into council.

“I think preferential voting is the best way, that’s why it’s been adopted in Australia at State and Federal levels,” he said

“I think we should have it at a local government level as well.”

Deputy shire president John Bromham said preferential voting in local elections allowed for better representation on the council.

He told the meeting he had been in elections where a candidate had run on a single issue, which saw those councillors involved in council meetings but not in committees.

“I think it is very important to make sure the community can elect people who can represent them proactively in all aspects in what we do,” Cr Bromham said.

Cr Wendy Dickinson argued optional preferential voting would not make any difference to candidates standing for a single issue and said the costs for the local government would be higher when running elections.

The amendment passed 8-2, with Cr Dickinson and Cr Robyn Coleman in the minority.

Cr Alicia Hitchcock successfully moved an amendment which sees the council supporting voting in-person and electronically alongside postal voting, saying it would be beneficial for the shire to have the alternate options available to it in the future.

Cr Craig Carbone also successfully moved an advocacy position which would allow councillors within the State’s biggest councils to elect their mayor or shire president rather than voters.

He said councils were best served by leaders elected by councillors, who are themselves elected by their constituents.

“What directly elected mayors or presidents do is give popular people or people with the most money the chance to be elected to those positions,” he said.

“The best way to do it, is the elected members, with the continuity we have, select the best person they think can represent the shire.”

Cr Bromham said the move would ensure the council’s leadership was not just limited to those who can afford to run campaigns, while Cr Dickinson said a potential candidate for mayor or president would find the position “very difficult” without local government experience.

While the council did not support voting being made compulsory in local government elections, Cr Coleman said she wondered if the move would engage younger people to engage much earlier in council elections.

“When I was in my 20s and 30s, local government elections weren’t on my radar at all,” she said.

“Given that in our shire less than 28 per cent of people come out and vote voluntarily — but the amount of people who contact the shire in various forms is a lot more than that — I query wether or not compulsory voting may be a better way to go.”

Communities and lifestyle director Suzie Haslehurst said the council would be able to make the decision to implement compulsory voting, but the cost would be substantial for the shire to implement the change.

“The sheer cost of counting potentially 16,000 votes would be enormous for a local government,” she said.