Council will recommend Redlanders continue to be represented by a Mayor and 10 Councillors following a decision at today’s Council meeting (11 February 2015).
Redland City Mayor Karen Williams said Council would also ask the Electoral Commission of Queensland to adjust divisional boundaries to ensure populations are evenly distributed as required under the Local Government Act 2009.
“We are obliged by state law to review our divisional boundaries a year ahead of the local government elections to ensure residents are fairly represented and electors evenly distributed between divisions,’’ Cr Williams said.
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“As part of this process, it also made sense to look at Council’s structure and whether it best suits the needs of this city.
“Councillors reported broad range of views from the community regarding the potential to change the number of divisions or remove them altogether and it was clear that there is no clear drive for change and that many residents believe the current 10-division system is serving the city well.
“While the status quo will remain for Council’s divisional structure, there will have to be some variations to divisional boundaries to ensure populations are evenly distributed in line with state law.’’
A review of elector numbers provided by the Electoral Commission of Queensland has established that Division 5 (Redland Bay, Southern Moreton Bay Islands) has exceeded the allowable quota, with Division 6 (Mount Cotton, Sheldon, Thornlands, Victoria Point, Redland Bay) forecast to be outside the quota by the next election.
“With continued growth in those parts of the city, there will need to be some boundary adjustments,’’ Cr Williams said.
“However, while the Local Government Act requires boundaries to be realigned when quotas are out of kilter, we expect that communities of interest will be maintained.’’
Cr Williams said that rather than recommending where those changes should be, Council would leave it to the Electoral Commission to make a determination.
“Council believes the most appropriate course is to leave it to the independent arbiter to review what changes are warranted and to come up with a balance,’’ she said.
Council’s General Manager Organisational Services Nick Clarke said the Commission may call for public submissions or hold public hearings to ask affected residents for their views before any decisions are made.
The results of Council’s review process must now be submitted to the Local Government Minister by 1 March 2015 for referral to the Electoral Commission.
“Any boundary changes will take effect from the next local government election, which has been set down for March 19 next year,’’ Mr Clarke said.
Under the Act, each division must have a reasonable proportion of electors which is worked out by dividing the total number of electors in the city by the number of councillors other than the mayor. There’s a tolerance of plus or minus 10 per cent.
