Scrutiny?

While most of us were at Remembrance Day services Ben and Colin were having a knock-about in parliament.

Extract from WA Hansard, Legislative Assembly 11^th November 2015

 Mr C.J. BARNETT: There is no nexus. With respect to the first part of the question, it is true; I think people in Western Australia, particularly in metropolitan areas, are paying more in rates than they should for the services they are receiving.
Mr R.H. Cook: Given that they are land taxes.
Mr C.J. BARNETT: I am getting to that. Typically, in my area, admittedly a prosperous and wealthy part of the community, local government rates are probably $2 500 to $3 000 for a typical house. That is well above what would be charged in, say, the City of Stirling, a bigger local government area; I do not know what the rates are —
Mr A.J. Simpson: They are about $1 200.
Mr C.J. BARNETT: Yes—so why should people pay over twice the rate in Cottesloe, Claremont and Mosman Park compared with the rate in the City of Stirling?
Dr A.D. Buti: Armadale is about that.
Mr C.J. BARNETT: Armadale is another high one. I think that there is a real question there, and I am glad that the member for Victoria Park has raised this. I think there is a real question about the level of local government rates and the accountability of local government. Indeed, I think there is a serious lack of accountability. Local governments just tend to increase their rates; they face no scrutiny.

Those of you who follow these government matters will know that the Minister for Local Government, Tony Simpson, explained that there was no scrutiny of local government back in February 2015. That was the month that the Colin Barnett explained on 6PR that “... most corruption in WA is in local government.”

It was also the same time that our WA Treasurer, Mike Nahan, advised us that, “There is a serious lack of democracy in local government.”

So what do we make of the land tax debate?

First we need to be cautious about Ben Wyatt. Who is he?

We know from many comments in parliament that the cronies have positioned public service officials around the state to do their bidding, but in Wyatt’s case there is a disturbing testimonial that came from a covert surveillance recording that featured during one of the many CCC inquiries into misconduct in public office. Brian Burke, former Premier of WA and ex-convict commented that Wyatt was one of his appointments. Forget open and free democratic elections, the truth is that any member of parliament has to pass the pre-selection by those who run the party before they can be voted for. Wyatt allegedly gained Brian Burke’s patronage.

Back to what was being said about rates – why should one group pay more than another? Why should rural residents pay for tourism? Why should retirees pay local shire rates to pay for the business expenses of those who choose to operate businesses in their locality? Obviously we all need to pay when we use the product or services of a business or industry but do we need to pay their costs if we aren’t using their business? Do we need to improve the profits of wine makers by picking up the costs for dealing with the glass mountain their industry produces? Do we need to bear the costs of rubbish left behind by visitors to the shire?

All big difficult questions and mostly they involve the perennial issue of cost-shifting. The wine industry wants the tax payers, local, state and federal to pay for the alcohol related social problems, the glass, the alcohol related road accidents, all costs that would not be incurred if we did not have people making profits from alcohol.

When Prevelly was being developed those wishing to take profits from the land subdivision did not want to fund a road to make the residents safer in the event of a bushfire, they wanted someone else to pay for that. The taxpayers.

When costs are shifted at state and federal level there is often some media coverage, but when this happens at local level any expression of concern by journalists is rare. Those gaining most from the cost shifting are the very people who fund the FREE newspapers we enjoy locally. Without the real estate agents and wineries advertising those free newspapers would not survive.

The lack of scrutiny of local governments is another big issue and what Barnett went on to say will strike a chord among many within our community here in Augusta-Margaret River.

Mr C.J. BARNETT: I will get to the second part of his question. I think there is a serious issue and the Minister for Local Government has already flagged publicly that the Auditor General will take a supervisory role over local government. Indeed, there have even been suggestions by members of cabinet about a parliamentary committee to oversight local government. That is actively under consideration. I think people want their local governments to provide local services; they do not want them to get involved in wider public campaigns or travel the world or whatever they might do. Ratepayers are thoroughly sick of that. That is not their jurisdiction; it is not their responsibility.

So dear reader are you thoroughly sick of our local government travelling the world or whatever they might do. Maybe the China visits were not as valuable to ratepayers as Smart and Evershed might have us believe.

Watch out for scrutiny of our local government, it could herald a new era. We have suffered 20 years of the old.