Referendum To Go Ahead

LAST night the Upper Hunter Shire Councillors have voted to allow the referendum to decide if there should be a directly elected Mayor occur at the next local government elections in September.

Mayoral chains of the Upper Hunter Shire

Cr Michael Johnsen wanted to make it clear that by supporting the referendum he was not supporting a change to a directly elected Mayor and said “there will still be plenty of time to argue for or against”.

However, Mayor Bedggood was emphatic in response to Cr Johnsen’s comments that the Council would not be making a case for or against the question in the referendum.

“Just for a point of clarification Council will not be arguing for or against, Council will be informing the public about what it is they will be voting for let me make that quite clear we will not be arguing for or against,” said Mayor Bedggood.

“We will give the community as much information as we can, but it will be unbiased information  on which they can make their decision,” he said.

“We won’t be debating it as a Council and we may have view points as individuals, but certainly not as a Council,” Wayne Bedggood said.

The Council papers stated that “a preamble similar to that provided in the survey should also be included in the referendum, excluding any reference to costs as these would no longer be relevant.”

The same preamble was critcised by independent assessors of the survey for being verbose and biased and the New South Wales Electoral Commission said such a preamble would not be approved for a referendum.

A spokesperson for the Commission yesterday said the only preamble permitted would be a simple sentence such as ‘currently the Mayor is elected by the Councillors for a period of one term’ and then lead into the referendum question.

They further explained that any election materials related to the referendum outlining pros and cons would also have to be approved by the Commission and free of bias.

However, if Council issue education materials before the writs are issued these materials do not need to be assessed by the Commission for bias.

Related Stories:

• Wasting Money or Avoiding Decisions?: January 18, 2016.
• Phone Survey to Happen: January 18, 2016.
• Experts Slam Council Survey: March 17, 2016.
• Phone Survey Results In: March 29, 2016.