A tale of two cities !

Australia's two biggest cities - Sydney and Melbourne - have a very different way of electing their Lord Mayor who sets the pace for the direction the city takes and manages it's finances.   The business community in Sydney is disenfranchised while in Melbourne it takes part in the polls that elect the Lord Mayor to office.

Sydney's residents are enrolled to vote in council elections but the business owners are required t apply for the vote at each council term of  office - and they are tipped off the roll prior to each new election, requiring them to reapply to regain their voting franchise.   As a result, few bother.   The selection of Lord Mayor is therefore in the hands of the limited number of people who actually reside in the fashionable inner city suburbs - and whose outlook is often disdainful of business interests.

As a consequence, Sydney has seen diminishing street parking as kerbside space has been converted to bicycle lanes and there is a proposal to spend nine million dollars on art work throughout the city centre.
That could change as a private members bill sponsored by the fringe Shooters and Fisher's party moves through state parliament, which seeks to automatically list the 80,000 business owners on the electoral roll.
One of the issues that this bill needs to tackle is the matter of absentee voting.  In the past, voting has been restricted to a handfull of venues in the inner city.   The vast number of business owners live in distant suburbs and few will welcome the necessity to come int the city on a Saturday to place their vote.  Postal voting is common in Federal and state elections, and there seems no reason why this should not be extended to the city vote.

It has long been an anomaly that the major portion of rates finance comes from Sydney's business owners and yet they are barely represented when it comes to choosing who will run the city.    Many people think Sydney has been concentrating on social issues rather than tackling the major problems that confront the city. In particular, city traffic is being impeded by little used bike lanes as attempts are made to impose a culture that may work in some European cities, but which has failed miserably to attract adherents here.

Some may question why there are vagaries in the selection of local government in Australian cities.   The rules that apply to both Federal and State elections are perfectly clear, and there is no reason why a common set of standards should not cover local government.    The aim should be to spread the voting franchise as widely as possible  !