27 April 2025 

MEDIA RELEASE

Office of the AUDITOR GENERAL (OAG) is currently Auditing LG management of LOCAL ROAD maintenance

Please ask your readers to send in their stories/complaints about local road maintenance to the OAG NOW

Please ask your local government if it is being audited as a sampled entity, and let your local Elected Members know

https://audit.wa.gov.au/audit-program/audits-in-progress/

From OAG:

Local government entities spend a significant portion of their budget on transport, primarily the local road network. A well-maintained local road network contributes to positive safety, economic and social outcomes for the community. Local roads in regional areas have been identified at most risk of maintaining, most in need of funding and where councils require greater support to help manage these roads. Local governments manage local roads within their own boundaries, in collaboration with other entities.

Roads which are not maintained impact people, the economy, road safety and creates a financial liability into the future. There is a risk that roads may deteriorate if maintenance needs are not met.

This audit will assess if regional local government entities effectively manage the maintenance of their local roads.

OAG criteria will include, but may not be limited to:

• Do local government entities have appropriate information and data on the condition of the roads they own/or are responsible for?
• What funding is available to local government entities and are they accessing funding that may be available?
• Do local government entities have a structured and risk based process to prioritise and fix roads in poor condition?

OAG seeking feedback from regional road users, please complete the survey by Wednesday 19 March: Regional road user survey

OAG plans to table this report in the second quarter of 2025.

—————————————————————————————————————————–

27 April 2025

MEDIA RELEASE

LGEMA is calling on Premier the Hon Roger Cook and Minister for Electoral Affairs the Hon David Michael to expand Special Parliamentary Inquiry into the WAEC Conduct of State Election to Include the WAEC Conduct of Local Government Elections

The next Local Government election is on 18 October 2025.

Without change the election will not produce a safe outcome or be fair.

Fraudulent election practices are much more likely to influence electoral outcomes where voting is not compulsory and there is poor voter turnout.

WA and SA remain the only jurisdictions without compulsory voting in local government elections.

LGEMA supports and calls for compulsory voting in local government elections.

Noting many local government elections are postal elections run by the WAEC, the WA Electoral Commissioner’s conduct of local government elections that we complain of includes,

1. Failure to ensure a safe and secure chain of custody of postal ballot papers, blank postal ballot papers and completed postal ballots.
2. Failure to cause/direct Returning Officers to prosecute Local Government electoral offences.
3. Not keeping adequate accountable informing records about Local Government election complaints.

Case Study

In the 2023 City of Fremantle local government election conducted by the WAEC, the WAEC put the wrong ballot papers into the envelopes for two wards, which meant each voter was given the wrong/other wards’ ballot paper. The efforts made to remedy the situation when it was brought to WAEC attention by others were paltry and misconceived at best. Evidence which was not led at trial for reasons that escape us, showed that there also may have been a chain of custody issue/misuse affecting blank ballot papers. The 2025 Court of Disputed Returns decision in Maria Vujcic and Greater Fremantle Community and Business Association Inc & Western Australian Electoral Commission and Jemima Williamson Wong FRE/GEN/922 and 930/2023, brought a frustrated magistrate to state to the court on handing down his decision 12 February 2025,

Deputy Chief Magistrate Darge: It is not the court’s role to punish the WA Electoral Commission …

LGEMA asks: WHOSE JOB IS IT?

Throughout the judgment, the Magistrate used words that included,

• crisis
• terrible mistake
• momentous error
• error of enormity
• scandal
• information dissemination not perfect
• elector confusion
• posting inaccurate tally of votes.

Case Study

In the 2023 Court of Disputed Returns (CDR) hearing in the Magistrates Court, Shire of Serpentine Jarrahdale (1st Complainant) Shaye Luke Mack (2nd Complainant) and Electoral Commissioner of Western Australia (WAEC) (Intervener) Gurdeep Singh (1st Interested Party) Robert Coales (2nd Interested Party) GCLM/1354/2021 & GCLM/1297/2021 (Serpentine Jarrahdale CDR), heard evidence led and accepted about people stealing postal ballot papers from letterboxes to use to vote in the election.  The Magistrate noted the totality of events that went to the central question of whether there was an election at all: Serpentine Jarrahdale CDR, para.37; and that the evidence may lead to a conclusion that the electoral fraud was so systemic that it goes beyond the mere exercise of counting numbers of votes to determine whether as a matter of fact the result was likely to have been affected by the fraud: Serpentine Jarrahdale CDR, para.38; and the court thus putting the question  if there was a case of a systemic defect or whether there exists a level of uncertainty: Serpentine Jarrahdale CDR, para.40. The WAEC had conducted the election and the Electoral Commissioner opposed this just outcome from the CDR with all the resources available to it^[1], which we did not understand given the evidence produced to the Commissioner and the CDR.

Case Study

In the City of Perth 2020 Local Government Inquiry report, Tony Power SC recommended that Local Government electoral offences be put into the WA Criminal Code.

We agree^[2] and call for this reform.

The City of Perth inquiry found that … Elections are the foundation of the democratic process… The Inquiry investigated a number of situations in which information received suggested election processes may have been undermined by improper manipulation. A number of examples of this type of conduct were identified. Sham leases were used to enfranchise candidate or a voter. Corporate nominee processes were falsified to entitle people to vote who were not otherwise eligible. False complaints were made to the City to have legitimate corporate nominees struck from the electoral roll. One candidate used the family’s post office boxes as the postal address for voters, raising the suspicion that the candidate intended to falsify votes. Manipulation of the electoral process strikes at the heart of the democratic system of local government representation … the City’s processes were not up to the task set and failed to adequately identify and deal with issues of electoral manipulation^[3].

LGEMA was formed in 2019 to provide independent expert support to Elected Members (EMs), and to advocate for their interests. The LGEMA Rules of Association objects are to:

Provide support for local government elected members dedicated to serving the public interest through open, accountable, transparent and sustainable Local Government by:

• Supporting councillors who are members of the association
• Publishing best practice models that promote the objects of the association including for local government procedures, planning scheme provisions, local laws, policies and notices of motion
• Providing education on best practice local government.

——————————————————————————————————————–

15 February 2025

MEDIA RELEASE

WA ELECTORAL COMMISSION CREATES A SCANDAL –Trust arrives on a tortoise and leaves on a galloping horse

Marija Vujcic and Greater Fremantle Community and Business Association Inc v Electoral Commission of Western Australia and Jemima Williamson-Wong Fre/Gen/922/2023 Fre/Gen/930/2023  (Fremantle Decision)

Sandra Boulter, Chair said “Magistrate Darge throughout this inquiry and in handing down the Fremantle Decision 12 February 2025 stated,

… It is not the court’s role to punish the WA Electoral Commission … LGEMA asks: WHOSE JOB IS IT?”.

Electoral Commissioner, Robert Kennedy considers, “ … the matter has now been resolved …” REALLY?

WAEC will run/be involved in three elections this year – local government, state, and federal.

How can we trust the WA Electoral Commission when the Fremantle Decision used words like,

• crisis
• terrible mistake
• momentous error
• error of enormity
• scandal
• information dissemination not perfect
• elector confusion
• posting inaccurate tally of votes

in dismissing the 2023 Fremantle election invalidity complaints because the Magistrate did not have sufficient evidence that the electoral outcome was affected by Electoral Commission’s distribution of Fremantle Coast Ward ballots to Central Ward and Central Ward ballots to Coast Ward.

Furthermore, the Magistrate, at para 75 of the Fremantle Decision, stated that,

… “Whilst the Commission and the State Government no doubt scrutinised this error in great detail, with a view to preventing its recurrence, investigating the error is not part of the determination of whether the election was unsafe and should be re-held” …

What scrutiny in detail was made or required in relation to this momentous issue? Where is the report?

John Quigley MLA is the Minister responsible for the WA Electoral Commission.

Hannah Beazley MLA is the Minister responsible for WA local government.

In 2021, the same magistrate sitting in the CDR overturned an election result in Shire of Serpentine Jarrahdale (1st Complainant) Shaye Luke Mack (2nd Complainant) and Electoral Commissioner of Western Australia (WAEC) (Intervener) Gurdeep Singh (1st Interested Party) Robert Coales 2nd Interested Party) GCLM/1354/2021 & GCLM/1297/2021 (Serpentine Jarrahdale CDR because of stolen postal ballot papers affecting the result.  https://lgema.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/Serpentine-Jarrahdale-CDR-decision.pdf

There is NO secure chain of custody of postal ballots or blank voting papers under the current

• local government electoral system
• No prudent local government Council desirous of a free and fair election would hold a postal election

 In 2023, the WAEC conducted 124 of 139 Local Governments’ general biennial elections, being the highest number on record (with the remaining 15 Local Governments purchasing counting software from WAEC), where,

• 9 were in-person elections
• 115 were postal elections
• 1,089 candidates contested 564 vacancies (39.6% female candidates)
• voter participation was up by 1.2% to 31.2%, but only 19.1% for in-person elections
• no public report can be found of how many electoral offence complaints were received, which LG Act provision was said to have been breached or how many were prosecuted by the WAEC

2023/2024 WAEC income from local governments’ municipal funds for conducting their elections

• $9,826,000
• This public money is collected from ratepayers

Furthermore, Tony Power SC in the City of Perth inquiry report synopsis at page 19, included criticism of the WAEC where it is contracted to conduct LG elections, and found local government employees wanting in relation to local government elections,

… Elections are the foundation of the democratic process … The Inquiry investigated a number of situations in which information received suggested election processes may have been undermined by improper manipulation. A number of examples of this type of conduct were identified. Sham leases were used to enfranchise a candidate or a voter. Corporate nominee processes were falsified to entitle people to vote who were not otherwise eligible. False complaints were made to the City to have legitimate corporate nominees struck from the electoral roll. One candidate used the family’s post office boxes as the postal address for voters, raising the suspicion that the candidate intended to falsify votes. Manipulation of the electoral process strikes at the heart of the democratic system of local government representation … the City’s processes were not up to the task set and failed to adequately identify and deal with issues of electoral manipulation ...

The QLD Corruption and Crime Commission examined elections across several Qld Local Governments and reported on election integrity issues: QLD CCC 2017 report Operation Belcarra: A blueprint for integrity and addressing corruption risk in local government and made 31 electoral reform recommendations.

The Fremantle Decision is here https://lgema.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/City-of-Fremantle-Election-CDR-Decision.pdf

Based on these decisions and inquiries,

LGEMA calls for an urgent expert and independent review of the WAEC operations, and the process and procedure for WA local government elections to be held 18 October 2025, looking back at the 2021 and 2023 local government elections.

WAEC 2024 Annual Report  https://www.elections.wa.gov.au/sites/default/files/Annual%20Report%202023-2024.pdf

WAEC Fremantle Decision Media Release https://www.elections.wa.gov.au/about-us/media/whats-new/2417

WA local government elections are held under the Local Government Act 1995, not the Electoral Act 1907 (WA)

Local Government Act 1995 (WA)  https://www.legislation.wa.gov.au/legislation/statutes.nsf/main_mrtitle_551_homepage.html

Local Government (Elections) Regulations 1997  (WA) https://www.legislation.wa.gov.au/legislation/statutes.nsf/law_s4576.html&view=consolidated

Report of the Inquiry into the City of Perth https://www.dlgsc.wa.gov.au/department/publications/publication/report-of-the-inquiry-into-the-city-of-perth

Statement ends

———-//———-

24 November 2024

MEDIA STATEMENT 

BILL 181 PASSED BY WA STATE GOVERNMENT – 24 NOVEMBER 2024 

ALREADY COMPROMISED EM WHISTLEBLOWER SAFETY BLOWN UP BY WA PARLIAMENT 

Local Government Amendment Bill 2024, not supported by evidence, public submissions or the public interest in LG good governance, but supported by LG Minister, DLGSC, WALGA and LG Pro (on the face of it in CEO interests) has now been enacted by parliament.

Chair, Sandra Boulter said “LGEMA has been watching closely, and has tried to raise awareness of the implications of Bill 181, to try and stop its passing. We however regret to inform members that its progression has been pushed through in what we believe is a sad day for elected members. 

We would like to thank those MP’s who stood up for democracy and who spoke eloquently on the Bill and its many flaws.  This was a cross-party debate unsupported by many in the Parliament”.