BY-ELECTIONS could become unnecessary for replacing councillors in NSW under proposed state government vote counting changes that have won broad support from Newcastle City Council.
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The potential removal of the need to run by-election polls stems from the state government’s response to a committee inquiry into electoral matters.
Minister for Local Government Gabrielle Upton tabled the government’s response on Tuesday, accepting all 10 recommendations from the committee.
“Currently if a councillor resigns within 18 months of being elected, a by-election must be held to fill the vacancy,” Ms Upton said.
“Under these changes, by-elections will no longer need to be held and the vacancy can be filled by a vote count-back process where the next candidate in line will be elected.”
The cornerstone of the changes is scrapping random sample distribution of preferences in favour of a proportional system. In its report the committee noted it heard “almost unanimous agreement that random sampling should be removed”.
Newcastle lord mayor Nuatali Nelmes said the council was broadly supportive that the government had accepted the recommendations, while Maitland City Council said it was yet to receive correspondence about the changes and would consider them “at the appropriate time”.
“Novocastrians know all too well that by-elections can be very costly,” Cr Nelmes said.
“A system that allows for a fair and transparent vote count-back process could save Newcastle ratepayers thousands, if not millions of dollars that would be much better spent on delivering services, infrastructure and amenity upgrades for our local community.”
A Port Stephens Council spokeswoman said the organisation supported any changes to election processes that made them more open and accountable.
The changes will be introduced for the 2020 local government elections.
Shadow Minister for Local Government Peter Primrose said that time frame was unacceptable given Parliament voted unanimously in August 2016 to allow count-backs in place of by-elections but regulations had not been put in place.
“There is no reason at all that putting these cost-saving regulations in place should take years,” Mr Primrose said.