Councillors want a review

Melbourne City councillors want a review of the way they are elected.

The electoral structure of the council is often criticised but, unlike other local councils which get reviewed regularly, it hasn’t been looked at in 10 years.

Cr Cathy Oke successfully moved that the council ask the Minister for Local Government Jeanette Powell for the review.  The council has twice recently asked for such a review but the previous State Government had ignored the request.

Ms Powell supported the idea of a review when she was in opposition.

Cr Oke said she didn’t have a view on what might be a better system of governance, but she felt that residents were not adequately represented under the current system.

She said she felt the system was skewed in favour of business representation.

She said a review of the entire system was needed including voting systems, the number of councillors, possible reintroduction of wards and the direct election of the Lord Mayor.

“I’m not entirely convinced about the direct election of the Lord Mayor.  At election time all the attention is on the lord mayoralty and councillors seem to escape scrutiny, and yet we all have the same voting weight,” Cr Oke said.