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Speaker 1: We know that the twenty twenty two Local Government Representation

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Speaker 1: Review has handed down the final reporter. It's been released

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Speaker 1: and determines a structure for each local government council to

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Speaker 1: ensure fair representation. Now, joining me in the studio to

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Speaker 1: talk a little bit more about the review, what it

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Speaker 1: entails and what the major changes are going to be

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Speaker 1: is the Northern Territories Electoral Commissioner but also a member

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Speaker 1: of the Local Government Representation Reviews Committee in Logan. Nathan.

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Speaker 1: Good morning to you.

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Speaker 2: Good morning, Katie Ian, Thanks so much.

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Speaker 1: For joining us this morning. Now, what was the major

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Speaker 1: reason behind this review?

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Speaker 2: Firstly, the major reason for this review is to look

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Speaker 2: at ward boundaries at local government and representation at local government.

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Speaker 2: In the past, the councils have undertaken this process themselves.

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Speaker 2: There were amendments to the Act in twenty nineteen saying

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Speaker 2: that like legislative Assembly, there should been independent process. So

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Speaker 2: this committee was established to look at to look at boundaries.

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Speaker 1: Now, what did the report find. It looks as though

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Speaker 1: there's a few quite a few things that it found.

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Speaker 2: So the report, the process started in March and we

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Speaker 2: released a primary report that made a couple of basically

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Speaker 2: up some proposals about some changes and certainly seeking feedback

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Speaker 2: from the council and the general public. But probably the

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Speaker 2: main change that the report has proposed then and determined

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Speaker 2: is that the City of Palmerston will have wards at

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Speaker 2: the next local government election in twenty twenty five.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, Now, why has this decision been made Because my

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Speaker 1: understanding is that the Palmerston Council were not too keen

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Speaker 1: on this happening.

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Speaker 2: Look, certainly the City of Palmerston Council weren't keen on

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Speaker 2: the introduction of wards, and we met with the council

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Speaker 2: three times and certainly a lot of correspondence between ourselves

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Speaker 2: and the council. All of that's available on the website,

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Speaker 2: the NTC website, So we're certainly trying to be open

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Speaker 2: and transparent out this. But councils didn't support the introduction

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Speaker 2: of wards for their reasons. For us, the committee just look,

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Speaker 2: really it's just a matter of population size. Palmerston is

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Speaker 2: a growing city. It's got forty thousand electors. At some

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Speaker 2: point you're really going to have to introduce wards, and

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Speaker 2: we just felt that this was the right time in

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Speaker 2: terms of putting in a structure for representation into the future.

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Speaker 1: And so were there other factors that were considered as

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Speaker 1: well or did it majorly just come down to population.

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Speaker 2: Look, certainly a population was a factor. We look at

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Speaker 2: issues in terms of like communities of interest and other

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Speaker 2: factors that are in the act. But really it's from

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Speaker 2: the committee's perspective you look at wards two scenarios. If

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Speaker 2: you look at the regional councils just based on their size,

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Speaker 2: even though it's a low population, you need wards so

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Speaker 2: that certain communities have representation at local government with municipal councils. Certainly,

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Speaker 2: once it gets to a certain size, and you certainly want,

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Speaker 2: you know, electors to know who they're voting for. You know,

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Speaker 2: wards just make a little bit more sense in terms

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Speaker 2: of in terms of you know, large and growing communities.

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Speaker 1: Now I suppose people will be thinking, well, what's what

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Speaker 1: are the real positives to changing it? If things weren't

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Speaker 1: broken in Palmerston, why are we trying to fix some.

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Speaker 2: Look, look, certainly things aren't broken in Palmerston, and you

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Speaker 2: know this is certainly no reflection on the current current council.

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Speaker 2: This is really looking at the next election and future elections.

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Speaker 2: But look, you know some of the advantages of wards

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Speaker 2: as like I said, members are more likely to be

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Speaker 2: known by their constituents. You know, each member can focus

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Speaker 2: on local issues as well as a council wide issues,

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Speaker 2: and you know, there's you would hope that there would

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Speaker 2: be more diversity between council members if they're from different

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Speaker 2: geographical parts of the of the council area.

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Speaker 1: So is it a situation sometimes where the number of

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Speaker 1: councilors that might come from one area of Palmerston, you

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Speaker 1: know sort of well that area might be overrepresented. It

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Speaker 1: over represented.

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Speaker 2: Look, you know, Palmerston's a certainly a big place with

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Speaker 2: with with another a number of suburbs and you know

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Speaker 2: a little bit like Darwin. Darwin's got four wards and

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Speaker 2: you know it's it kind of it provides a greater

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Speaker 2: probability of diversity by having wards.

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Speaker 1: And do we know what those wards are going to

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Speaker 1: be called at this stage?

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Speaker 2: Look? Not at this stage. In the report, the committee

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Speaker 2: has proposed number of names, but sort of suggested that

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Speaker 2: more consultation be done with the City of Parmson. It's

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Speaker 2: the minister that determines the names. What I should also

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Speaker 2: say is that the report actually has two scenarios for

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Speaker 2: Palmerston because currently Palmerston has seven councilors us the report

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Speaker 2: recommends that be increased to eight.

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Speaker 1: Right, so on extra counselor as well.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, it recommends because but that is a decision for

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Speaker 2: the minister. So we have a scenario there of three

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Speaker 2: wards with seven members and three wards with eight members,

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Speaker 2: which is our recommendation in relation to what the ward

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Speaker 2: boundary should be.

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Speaker 1: And fundamentally it will come down to being a decision

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Speaker 1: by the minister.

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Speaker 2: That's correct.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, Now tell me when is this change going to

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Speaker 1: come into effect?

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Speaker 2: So the change will come intoffect at the next local

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Speaker 2: government election in August twenty twenty five.

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Speaker 1: Okay, so not too far away. And what will what

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Speaker 1: mean for the people of Palmerston do you reckon?

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Speaker 2: So what will mean for the people of Palmerston is

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Speaker 2: that firstly, we would hope that their ballot paper is

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Speaker 2: a lot smaller because rather than having one ballot paper

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Speaker 2: for the whole of Palmerston, you're going to have three

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Speaker 2: ballot papers for each of those wards. So hopefully it'll

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Speaker 2: be easier to cast a formal vote and hopefully they

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Speaker 2: will know who the people are that they're voting for.

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Speaker 2: So in one sense, you know very little change, but

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Speaker 2: you know in terms of like you know to the

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Speaker 2: members of Palmerston now and in the future, you know

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Speaker 2: what we would hope for is you know, while you're

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Speaker 2: still representing Award on the council, you're representing the whole community.

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Speaker 1: Well, no doubt, we'll try and get the Mayor of

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Speaker 1: Palmerston on the show and get her reaction. Towards the

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Speaker 1: beginning of next week, I'd say I before I let

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Speaker 1: you go, though, can I find out the hour if

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Speaker 1: you're a by election? It's not too far away now,

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Speaker 1: is ash?

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Speaker 2: That's correct? So we have the election date on the

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Speaker 2: eighteenth of March. Given the nature of that division, most

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Speaker 2: of it will be done by mobile polling and that'll

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Speaker 2: start at the six to March. But the election itself

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Speaker 2: will will kick off on the twenty third of February

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Speaker 2: with the issue of the.

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Speaker 1: Red And I know that candidates and all that kind

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Speaker 1: of thing come down to being decisions made by the

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Speaker 1: political parties. But when will we know? What date will

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Speaker 1: that be known?

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Speaker 2: Look, it'll be known about a week after the issue

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Speaker 2: of the writ. So about the end of this month

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Speaker 2: we'll have the declaration of nominations and obviously there'll be

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Speaker 2: some press in relation to who those candidates are.

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Speaker 1: And I know as well next year as I understand,

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Speaker 1: Actually sorry, this year, I keep thinking that we're still

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Speaker 1: in last year. This year, there is going to be

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Speaker 1: some further work into the redistribution, isn't there for the

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Speaker 1: northern territory.

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Speaker 2: Look, that's correct. So this is a separate process. So

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Speaker 2: there's a redistribution of legislative assembly boundaries and that process

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Speaker 2: will kick off in a couple of weeks.

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Speaker 1: And what does that look into similar to what you've

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Speaker 1: done with the council wards or could it be a

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Speaker 1: situation where some of those boundaries change a little bit.

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Speaker 2: Look, like I said, with the local government, it was

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Speaker 2: just about the ward boundaries and the external boundaries weren't

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Speaker 2: something that we looked at together. With legislative assembly, it's

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Speaker 2: totally different, right, So we look at the whole of

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Speaker 2: the territory. There's twenty five seats, we look at the

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Speaker 2: current enrollment numbers, we look at the population, and we've

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Speaker 2: sort of determined in terms of like what the boundaries

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Speaker 2: should be so that at the next election, at the

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Speaker 2: election next year, there should be as equal number of

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Speaker 2: people in each seat as possible.

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Speaker 1: Okay, so we could actually see some changes I suppose

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Speaker 1: to some of those seats.

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Speaker 2: Yes, look absolutely, and we certainly are going to be

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Speaker 2: keen to get feedback from the public and general stakeholders.

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Speaker 2: So if you go into our website, I think it

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Speaker 2: goes up today, there'll be some data there in relation

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Speaker 2: to what the current numbers are and information and relation

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Speaker 2: to how you can put in a submission, so the

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Speaker 2: process kicks off. Like I said at I think the

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Speaker 2: twenty fourths of this month and the first part is

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Speaker 2: a month given to people to put in submissions for

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Speaker 2: the committee to consider.

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Speaker 1: Well and Electoral Commissioner Ian Logan, Nathan always good to

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Speaker 1: catch up with you. Thank you so much for your

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Speaker 1: time this morning.

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Speaker 2: Thank you, Katie,