Vote in support of people's veto
The Western Australian Local Government Association (WALGA) will continue supporting voters’ ability to veto council merger plans.
The ‘Dadour amendment’ as it has become known, will be ditched on the state level under planned legislation to clear the path to merge Perth's thirty local councils into fourteen.
The signalled moves have caused protests and threats from voters; some see the attempt to remove veto powers as a blow to public democratic expression.
Reports say WALGA was caught off-guard by indications the WA Premier was taking new plans to the party room last week. The Local Government Association held a special state council meeting to discuss the issues this week.
A vote was held, with association spokesperson Ricky Burges saying WALGA's previous resolution supporting some amendments, was too restrictive.
“If at any stage, the state government wants to change any of this process, WALGA will go out to its members and seek their support through a consultation process,” she said
“We may not be able to respond to changes that the State Government might make so we were looking to try and respond to those changes quickly and more flexibly.”