Politics blight WA Councils (West Australian). Canning’s new problem?

Arthur Kyron, Australian Greens, Bannister Ward, Beeliar Ward, Beeloo Ward, Ben Kunze, Christine Cunningham, Graham Barry, Inquiry in to City of Canning, Jesse Jacobs, Lindsay Holland, Margaret Hall, Mason Ward, Mike Nahan, Nicholson Ward, Patrick Hall, Paul Ng, Sara Saberi, Tim Porter, WA Greens, WA Labor, WA Liberal Party, Yaso Ponnuthurai, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

In the last five years the City of Canning has been through:

  • Four councils (including two sets of Commissioners)
  • Three CEOs
  • High staff turnover
  • Near complete loss of governance experience
  • And it was due to be ceased as a local govt on 30 June 2017

Near total wipe-out, in other words. Not a good look, or a great base to move on from – each new CEO or form of governance believed they were doing a better job than the last, after they set about addressing what was wrong with the former.

It’s gotten so old –  I can only imagine what staff have been through.

Something new did emerge from the hubbub, however – Canning now has a council shot through with political party memberships and affiliations, and councillors who either have, or I suspect will, run for parliament and/or run again (and again).

Let’s face it, councillors now get four times the money of just three years ago, and a four-year term in local govt can be enough to pay for a parliamentary run*.

It’s my belief the politicisation of Canning may be a factor in what appears a growing imbalance in how it is governed.  After five years spent “fixing Canning” the fact there’s any sense of that is staggering.

The Weekend West has just published observations about the growing politicisation of councils, and respected political commentator, Martin Drum (Notre Dame University) feels we need to address this now.

Today, Canning is right up there with other councils in determining Why Politics Can Be A Blight On Local Councils.  Two ways to read Paul Murray’s opinion piece below:-

“Why Politics Can Be A Blight On Local Councils”

Or click on below to enlarge (magnifies twice).

*In 2017 Kate Doust, WA Labor party member of the Legislative Council spoke of the costs of running for parliament being around $100,000 per person
“Politics a blight on councils” published in the Weekend West on Saturday 21 January 2017 and article appeared via PressReader on same date.
My thanks to DomenicBlair (sic) for the image featured in this post. Image sourced via Pixabay, and can be found at https://pixabay.com/en/magic-cube-cube-puzzle-play-378543/