Local Council Needs Your Vote
As a young person, saying that you’re running for local council is often met with surprise. Councils are often mistaken for a stale, stagnant place where Baby Boomers air grievances. This should not be the case.
To explain why your vote in local council is so vital, let me tell you why I’m running for Melville City Council. Earlier in the year I saw something that made me very uncomfortable on Facebook, a sign for me that change was needed.
A Facebook page campaigning against overdevelopment posted photos of “cheap, ugly development” around the Canning Bridge precinct, condemning development in the area.
To me, it is incredibly distasteful to see residents of affluent suburbs like Mount Pleasant and Applecross publicly posting photos proclaiming the ugliness of their neighbour’s apartments.
The post even went on to shame apartments for airing their washing on their balconies (the horror).
In local politics, there are groups and individuals with views totally at odds with a younger generation that can’t all afford to live in the riverside mansions of leafy and affluent suburbs. For many young people, perhaps a modest apartment along Canning Highway is all they can afford.
There is nothing wrong with age and wisdom in council, but unless we all vote with our conscience, these skewed views will persistently dominate councils.
Council oversees a range of different activities, not just the bins. The City of Melville, in which Murdoch University is located, oversees planning, infrastructure, libraries and recreation centres, community groups, sports, parks and sustainability, amongst other things.
The impacts of local council is often understated, but often it can come down to a local council decision whether your sports club is able to thrive, whether development takes place, or whether you’ll be paying more in rates when you’re able to afford a house.
Despite the difference that local council make in the community, youth turnout has been consistently disappointing. 2017 statistics indicate that while around half of eligible voters aged 65+ voted in that year’s council elections, less than one in four of those aged 18-34 voted in that same election.
The Western Australian Election Commission in their 2017 Report said:
“In the 2017 elections the lowest voter participation was in the 18‒24 age group… low voter turnout for young electors is still an issue.”
For young people the solution to council representation is simple: get out and vote. Council election candidates are increasingly young but the average age is still 52. Melville’s voter turnout is good at 38.7% but still short of Fremantle at 50.8%.
Local council elections are conducted by postal ballot and voting packages should be in your mail by late September or early October.
Make your voice heard. Vote in this year’s local government elections.
Disclaimer: The writer plans to run in the local council elections for Melville.