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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2024-02-08 Daily Xml
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Davenport Electorate Council Elections

Ms THOMPSON (Davenport) (15:09): With a council by-election currently underway in the City of Onkaparinga, Pimpala Ward, in my electorate of Davenport, there is plenty of conversation in the community about council elections and how they are run. People care about local issues. They care about their local sports clubs, they care about their local parks and reserves, about beautification in their neighbourhood, about roads and trees and the footpath out the front of their house. However, what people do not seem to care about are local council elections.

In South Australia, at the last local government election in 2022 less than one-third of council ratepayers voted. This means that some local council members and mayors are elected on a very small handful of votes, with some being elected completely uncontested. This raises concerns about the legitimacy of council elections and whether or not candidates elected can adequately represent their community. I am very pleased that Minister Geoff Brock is undertaking a review into local government participation and elections, and I encourage all members to both consider providing their own feedback and also encourage their councils to do so, if they have not already.

An opportunity that the minister's review seeks feedback on, and a topic that the Local Government Association of SA considers to be the biggest opportunity for local government in the next five years, is compulsory voting. Last year I was fortunate to have University of Adelaide student Isabelle Tindle prepare a report for me that investigated whether or not South Australia should introduce compulsory voting in local council elections.

Issy completed her report as part of her internship, and she did an incredible job. She is a high achiever, and received outstanding marks for her work on this topic. What I learned from Issy's report is that all other states that have implemented compulsory voting here in Australia (that being every single one of them except Western Australia and South Australia) have seen a significant increase in voter turnout, with each of the states seeing an 80 per cent to 85 per cent turnout compared to our substantially lower voter turnout of less than 33 per cent.

We know that it is important to increase engagement, and the minister's review is exploring some of the methods that could help us achieve that. In my neck of the woods, the City of Onkaparinga has been actively advocating for local council election reforms for some time. They would particularly like to see an increase in voter participation, as they worry that local council elections and forums are being weaponised by fringe political groups. We saw this playing out at the 2022 council elections in both the northern and southern suburbs.

Even though the extreme views expressed by these groups are minority views, the lack of general voting in council elections allows these groups to dominate local councils, and subsequently push a wide range of sometimes extreme agendas. Increasing voter participation could help to mitigate this concern, while also ensuring representation on local councils through a large range of elected candidates who more adequately represent their communities.

Another option that Issy's report suggests would likely achieve better voter engagement, and one that I know our communities would be excited about, is the introduction of electronic voting. Access to electronic voting would significantly increase accessibility and convenience for voters, allowing them to participate from anywhere with an internet connection. This will especially benefit individuals with disabilities and those living in remote areas.

Unfortunately, we have not yet been in a position to see online voting introduced widely, but with more and more government services like Centrelink and other secure services like banking now available online, I am sure the technology is within reach. Wouldn't local government be the perfect place to trial it?

Issy's report suggests that whilst there would likely be some level of anxiety around security of online voting, it could in fact enhance the security and integrity of elections through advanced encryption and authentication measures, reducing the risk associated with the current form of voting in council elections through a paper ballot.

Mr Brock's review is receiving feedback until the end of March, and I am really looking forward to seeing the outcome.

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