Politics & Council
29 May, 2024
BREAKING NEWS - Government takes 'easy option' on ward changes
THE State Government this afternoon confirmed it would implement only minor change to Loddon Shire ward boundaries in October. The Government said it Government had accepted the VEC’s final report and recommendations "ensuring fair and equitable...
THE State Government this afternoon confirmed it would implement only minor change to Loddon Shire ward boundaries in October.
The Government said itGovernment had accepted the VEC’s final reportand recommendations "ensuring fair and equitable representation through the new ward boundary arrangements".
The boundaries changes mean tweaking of the Inglewood and Tarnagulla Wards as first proposed by the Victorian Electoral Commission.
The VEC puts its minimalist approach ahead of a proposal to connect communities of interest proposed in a submission by the Loddon Herald.
In its final report, the commission said: "The VEC put forward a preliminary model with minor boundary adjustments, sufficient to address the requirements of the Act, and which made minimal changes to existing boundaries and groupings of communities of interest contained in those wards. After considering the model presented in the preliminary report, the requirements of the Act and public submissions, the VEC has chosen to put forward the preliminary model as the VEC’s recommended model with no further adjustments.
"The VEC would like to acknowledge the submission from the Loddon Herald, which proposed substantial boundary adjustments that emphasised communities of interest. While the VEC considered the arguments put forward in the submission to have merit, it was felt this proposal could not be a recommendation of this review due to two major factors:
• The Loddon Herald model proposed significant change to the ward boundaries which would have affected 23.8 per cent of currently enrolled voters (1661 voters). The submission proposed a major reconfiguration of the current wards that goes beyond the focus of the current review, which is to balance ward deviations. This level of change could be disruptive for voters, whereas the preliminary model would result in a clear majority of voters being maintained in familiar wards and ward boundaries.
• Relatedly, it was felt that change of this scale would not be appropriate to adopt without further community consultation. While the model might reflect an improved grouping of communities of interest, these communities of interest were not given adequate opportunity to consider or comment on the changes. For the VEC to recommend the model could have raised issues of procedural fairness. In light of this, and due to the scale of change and need for additional consultation to occur, overall, the VEC noted the Loddon Herald proposal would be more appropriate for consideration by an Electoral Representation Advisory Panel at the next full electoral structure review of Loddon Shire Council."
Full report in next week's Loddon Herald