The New South Wales Local Government Minister Ron Hoenig recently emphasised reforming the NSW Local Government Act 1993 to protect council staff from undue pressure, address misconduct among elected representatives, and ensure more transparent briefings.
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While these reforms are welcome, they do not address the democratic disparity in councils.
A critical element of democratic government is equitable representation. The “one vote, one value” principle should give all community members equal access to their elected representatives, empowering them to advocate for their constituents’ interests effectively.
The Commonwealth electoral divisions and NSW state electoral districts do this by periodically redrawing to maintain population parity, as mandated by the Commonwealth Electoral Act 1918 and the NSW Constitution Act 1902.
The Local Government Act 1993 also adheres to this principle when it comes to ward division within one council area and requires councils to alter their ward boundaries to ensure that voters in all wards have comparable access to their councillors, akin to the requirements for state and federal representatives.
However, a significant disparity exists in the number of constituents represented by local government councillors across different Local Government Areas (LGAs) in Greater Sydney.
In some LGAs, the population represented by a councillor is several times higher than in others, resulting in unequal democratic representation.
For example, Hunters Hill, with a population of about 14,000, has 7 councillors, each representing about 2000 people.
In contrast, Blacktown City, with a population of about 411,000, has 15 councillors, each representing about 27,000 people. This example highlights the significant disparity in democratic representation. A person in Hunters Hill benefits from 14 times the representation compared to someone in Blacktown.
The graph below shows that in Greater Sydney, lower socioeconomic and multiethnic councils in Western Sydney have a much higher population per councillor than the affluent, predominantly white areas in the East. This creates a significant democracy deficit in Western Sydney that local government reforms must address.
Almost all councils close to the CBD in the East, except for the City of Sydney, enjoy a better representation ratio compared to those in the outer areas of Sydney, including the peri-urban councils of Hawkesbury, Wollondilly, and Blue Mountains.
Interestingly, comparing this graph above with the graph from the NSW Productivity Commissioner’s report Building More Homes Where People Want to Live, we found that councils close to the CBD and lower populations have produced less housing than councils with higher populations per councillor.
Recent research shows that affluent Sydney communities near the city centre are highly organised and resist neighbourhood development. This results in a socioeconomically and culturally divided city.
Local councillors in these areas represent a small number of people. As a result, they are easily influenced by small but vocal pressure groups.
This NIMBY resistance hinders urban development and the provision of additional housing, as well as having unintended racist outcomes, as we discussed previously.
The NSW Productivity Commission report mentioned above shows that less than 20 per cent of new dwellings were built within 10 kilometres of the CBD between 2016 and 2021, with most of the development occurring 30 to 40 km from the city centre.
The new Department of Planning forecasts that Hunters Hill Council, with the highest per councillor, will only grow by about 0.2 per cent per annum, making it one of the slowest growing in Greater Sydney.
In contrast, Blacktown, with 14 times less democratic representation, is projected to grow at 1.27 per cent, making it one of the fastest growing councils.
Past and projected urban development growth patterns are exacerbating Western Sydney’s democracy deficit, with large councils forecasted to grow much faster than the smaller councils in Eastern and Northern Sydney. If nothing is done, the democracy disparity will worsen.
The need for democratic reform in NSW local government is evident. The disparities in councillor-to-resident ratios across different Local Government Areas (LGAs) illustrate a significant imbalance in representation.
This imbalance undermines the democratic principle of “one vote, one value” and diminishes the opportunity for some residents to access local governance. It also seems to impact housing production and reforms across the Sydney metropolitan area.
Local government reforms should not be as simple as implementing council amalgamation, which was previously abandoned for eastern suburb councils.
Meanwhile, amalgamation would reduce the disproportionately high local representation per person in affluent eastern areas, which currently allows small pressure groups to engage local representatives in resisting the provision of additional housing. Real reforms must address the true nature of democratic representation.
