WA residents have pushed over a dozen councils to debate COVID-19 vaccination mandates. 

Reports say up to 14 West Australian councils have been forced to consider opposing state government COVID-19 vaccination mandates. 

The Shire of York is the most recent, with a special electors' meeting being held on the matter after ratepayers signed a petition to hold it. 

Locals are demanding their councils give the community a choice on COVID-19 vaccinations and to reject state mandates.

A series of special electors' meetings have been held along these lines. The meetings are required for any issues that 100 electors, or 5 per cent of the population, requests.

Fremantle and Busselton have held meetings with almost identical agendas to the York Shire’s.

“If people don't want to be vaccinated, that's their choice,” says York Shire president Denese Smythe.

“But we have to have rules … if we all decided we weren't going to wear a seatbelt or we were going to drive on the wrong side of the road, what would happen? Rules are there for a reason.

“We let those people have a chance to have their say, even if we don't completely share their beliefs.”

Meanwhile, the WA Shire of Bridgetown-Greenbushes has formally rejected calls from ratepayers to push for an end to COVID-19 vaccine mandates.

A special electors’ meeting in the shire last month was supported by almost 300 people, but only 20 people attended the meeting to debate the call to lobby the state government. A councillors’ vote to reject the electors’ meeting motions was won three votes to five.

The WA Local Government Association (WALGA) says the meetings should be stopped or at least held online, as COVID-19 outbreaks continue across the state. 

“Many of our members are concerned about the requirements to hold these meetings in the context of current caseloads of COVID-19,” WALGA president Karen Chappel says. 

“Local governments, in any of their decision-making processes, cannot make decisions that are in contravention to existing laws.

“Members of the community who might be concerned with state government directions or policy need to raise these issues with their local members of parliament.”