During the month of March, I asked you to join a discussion to determine the best council divisional boundary model for Ipswich.
You certainly answered the call, with 1049 responses to our survey and 450 insightful, well thought-out comments and contributions. Thank you for showing such a genuine interest in your city’s future governance.
I’m still in the process of finalising the report for the minister for local government, so I can’t yet disclose the survey results. But I can assure you that I will be clearly articulating the community’s collective views and preferences to the state government.
Council engaged an independent research company to review the various comments and suggestions and their report will be made public along with the council report to the state government.
The company briefed me last week on four common themes: future councillors, the democratic process, geographic/socio-economic diversity, and party politics.
You’re concerned about the calibre of the candidates who will run in March 2020. You want to ensure that incoming councillors display the character and skills needed to take on the roll, and that candidates can appropriately represent your interests.
There was much discussion around whether a councillor should be full-time or part-time, with several comments suggesting that a part-time approach may attract better candidates.
A number of respondents also wanted to limit the number of terms a person can be a councillor.
One resident noted that “irrespective of the model selected, processes to ensure transparency and governance need to be implemented so that the changes recently effected have a chance to become embedded and the culture improved.”
Many residents believe a decision like this should be made by the people, not the state government.
“A decision by the Change Commission doesn’t seem to be very democratic. The decision needs to be put to ratepayers,” one respondent noted.
While I certainly understand this, this process is actually legislated in the Local Government Act. Council’s role in this legislated process is to convey the community’s views and preferences to the state.
You’re clearly a proud community when it comes to geographic and socio-economic diversity. Many comments reflected the need to have local representatives who understand the differences between rural and urban areas.
Several respondents also expressed the view that the city is too culturally diverse for an undivided model. One comment noting that “I prefer a councillor that knows my division. I don’t believe that a councillor will have an intimate knowledge of the whole city area. People in Booval aren’t that interested in what is happening in Springfield.”
Finally, there was one message received loud and clear: That you want party politics out of your local council. Numerous respondents asked for more transparency around political party affiliations, and there was consistency around the idea that “party politics has no place in local government”.
I look forward to sharing the full results of the survey in the next couple of weeks, and to continuing to work with the local community as we collectively prepare to return to elected representation in just under 12 months’ time.