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Speaker 1: You also know around the place right now there is

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Speaker 1: a local Government Representation review underway. What exactly does that mean? Well,

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Speaker 1: this review aims to ensure that all voters in local

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Speaker 1: government areas are fairly represented. So what exactly is the

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Speaker 1: review going to see and how can people have their say? Well,

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Speaker 1: joining me on the line right now is Sean Holden,

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Speaker 1: who is indeed the Local Government Association of the Northern

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Speaker 1: Territories CEO, but also the chair of the NPTI Representation

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Speaker 1: Reviews Committee Committee. Good morning to you, Sean.

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Speaker 2: Good morning. How are you going?

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Speaker 1: Yeah, really well, thanks so much for your time this morning. Now, Sean,

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Speaker 1: what exactly is this review all about?

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Speaker 2: So traditionally what would happen with councils across the Northern

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Speaker 2: terriatire which they're seventeen. They would after each local government

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Speaker 2: election it's every four years, the conduct a review to

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Speaker 2: see if they needed to implement wards and how many

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Speaker 2: electors that they would elect for their council. And then

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Speaker 2: in the Local Government Act twenty nineteen from the Northern

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Speaker 2: Territory Government, a new system was developed and that's Local

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Speaker 2: Government Representation Reviews Committee. It's not something that was asked

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Speaker 2: for by local government but was included in the Act,

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Speaker 2: and that consists of the Surveyor General, the Commissioner for

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Speaker 2: the Northern Territory Electric Commission and the CEO of the

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Speaker 2: Local Government Association of Northern Territory, which is ME in

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Speaker 2: this case, and that that person would be chair and

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Speaker 2: they would look at all the information and the data

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Speaker 2: and listen to submissions and the various councils and determine

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Speaker 2: if a council which didn't have wards, if they needed

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Speaker 2: to have wards.

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Speaker 1: Right, So, I know that this is something that we've

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Speaker 1: sort of spoken a little bit about in relation to Palmerstan.

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Speaker 1: So is it one of the areas that you're looking into.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, And in fact it's the only one. Excuse me,

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Speaker 2: our municipal councils. The City of Darwin already has wards,

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Speaker 2: Alice Springs does not, Catherine does not, Richfield does. And

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Speaker 2: so we looked at all of the councils and had

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Speaker 2: another look at Palmerston and we're suggesting that they do do. Indeed,

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

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Speaker 2: have a ward system.

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Speaker 1: And so in terms of you know, Territorians being able

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Speaker 1: to have their say or those that live in those

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Speaker 1: you know, in that area. Is that something that they're

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Speaker 1: able to do.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, we've gone out to the consultation two times already

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Speaker 2: and this is there. Priminary report is out and we're

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Speaker 2: taking submissions until fourth of November, and people can do

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Speaker 2: it in many ways, but they're probably the easiest way through.

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Speaker 2: They have your say website and so far we've received

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Speaker 2: four submissions.

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Speaker 1: Is that it only four?

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Speaker 2: Yeah, we haven't had a lot of feedback on this

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Speaker 2: doesn't mean that people who don't have view of course

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Speaker 2: either way. So far we've had four.

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Speaker 1: So Sean, I guess you know, with this preliminary report,

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Speaker 1: there's been a number of recommendations as well, hasn't there.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, absolutely so. Parmesan's probably the most obvious, and we're

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Speaker 2: looking in that particular scenario for the introduction of four

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Speaker 2: wards and an extra elective member we think for better representation,

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Speaker 2: perhaps increased the membership from seven to eight. But we

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Speaker 2: also looked at a councilor in Central Desert which has

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Speaker 2: a ward system there and one ward where they traditionally

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Speaker 2: or certainly in recent memory, have found it very difficult

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Speaker 2: to get people to nominate. So we're suggesting that seat

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Speaker 2: go from two elected members down to one. The other

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Speaker 2: recommendation was that whilst our Springs at the moment doesn't

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Speaker 2: need our threshold of eighteen thousand people on the elect

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Speaker 2: enrolled to vote for there to be wards, they're around

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Speaker 2: fifteen nine and perhaps by the time of the next

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Speaker 2: review they may well exceed eighteen thousand and maybe in

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Speaker 2: line for award system.

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Speaker 1: Okay, so it does sound like there's quite a bit

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Speaker 1: sort of being looked at here, Suan. If there are

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Speaker 1: people listening this morning who are thinking to themselves, well,

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Speaker 1: I want to have my say on the Palmerston Council

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Speaker 1: and whether it should be wards, I want to have

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Speaker 1: my say on any of the various areas that are

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Speaker 1: being looked into. Is the best place for them to

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Speaker 1: head to that website that you'd mentioned earlier?

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Speaker 2: How do yours say? That's certainly the easiest. But you

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Speaker 2: can also go on to the Northern Territory Electoral Commission

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Speaker 2: website entech and you can certainly nominate in various sorry

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Speaker 2: you can put it in the submission various ways through there.

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Speaker 1: Well. Sean Holden, the Local Government Association of the Northern

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Speaker 1: Territory CEO and also the chair of the NT Representation

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Speaker 1: Reviews Committee. Thanks so much for your time this morning.

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Speaker 1: I appreciate it.

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Speaker 2: And thank you very much for your interest.

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Speaker 1: Thank you