I was interested to read about the sizes of voter populations in different NSW council areas.
Particularly of note was the difference between, for example, Brewarrina and the amalgated Central Coast Council.
Brewarrina has 959 voters; Central Coast has 261,000.
Brewarrina has nine Councillors, currently Central Coast has 15, with the referendum’s proposal to reduce this to nine.
That’s a huge differential in democratic representation!
If this proposal to reduce councillors gets up, each local councillor on the Coast would have a constituency of 2,900 as opposed to less than 100 at Brewarrina.
If 15 Councillors are retained, their constituency is 1,740, based on current populations, which is, of course, set to increase rapidly over the coming decades.
If you treasure democracy, you need to vote to retain no fewer councillors than the status quo.
Email, Sep 2
Lyndall Davis, Green Point