City of South Perth councillors want new code of conduct to include political party affiliations

Current and future City of South Perth councillors will be forced to include any affiliations they have with a political party under a new draft Code of Conduct. Cr Mary Choy’s proposal for chief executive Michael Bradford to update the councillor Code of Conduct no later than May and include a new rule that elected members and future candidates must advise the city of their membership or employment with any political parties was backed by the council last week. Under the proposal, a political interest register will be made publicly available on the city’s website. Cr Choy said preferential voting could result in “politicisation” at a local government level and bring “party politics” into local government. She said establishing a political interest register and making it publicly available would ensure an extra layer of transparency ahead of reform and the next elections. “If the proposed reform doesn’t proceed, the register will still serve to increase council’s level of transparency and accountability to the community,” Cr Choy said. City of Bayswater councillors already use a political interest register as their Code of Conduct 2021 requires them to disclose their political interests. The register is published on the City’s website and updated regularly. The City of Belmont also has a policy that requires councillors to disclose affiliations with political parties. But Local Government Minister John Carey said he personally believed the requirement to identify elected member political interests could actually attract political representation to the sector. “My personal view is that bringing in a requirement to disclose party affiliations could have the perverse outcome of inviting more party politics into local government, with parties forced into a situation of endorsing candidates,” he told PerthNow this week. “I would rather focus my attention on encouraging people with great ideas and passion for their community to put their hands up, irrespective of political affiliations. “If the City of South Perth wishes to implement these requirements, that is a matter for them.” Mr Carey said the Local Government Act did not prohibit political parties from endorsing candidates or local governments putting in place requirements for elected members to publicly disclose membership to a political party. Mr Carey - on behalf of the State Government - has proposed a bunch of council reforms, including replacing the current first-past-the-post voting system with preferential voting when it comes to election time. “The state government won’t be making any changes to the Act with regard to party affiliations,” he said. Cr Choy said the community had an interest and right to know about their councillors’ political affiliations, associated employment and how that may influence their decision making. Cr Glenn Cridland said if there was anything the city could do to keep “party politics” out of local government, it would be doing good. “Party politics is all about having people who vote in a bloc, faction and with their mates and we all know that is something that destroys council and is the opposite of good decision making,” he said. But he thought it was a “mistake” for the city to force a councillor to identify their political party membership. “I think employment is a different thing to someone choosing to join a political party because they like and want to support it,” he said. “To join a political party, there is no obligation on you to do anything in particular.” Cr Carl Celedin agreed and said there was a “vast range of ideas” between current council members, which was a good thing. “What you don’t want is preference dealing and tickets, which we have seen,” he said. Cr Choy said elected representatives had the right to be “open and honest”. “Ratepayers are entitled to know if elected representatives have political party connections and are politically motivated or influenced,” she said. Code of Conduct for council members, committee members and candidates at the City of Vincent, City of Perth and Town of Victoria Park currently don’t force members to disclose past and current affiliations with political parties.