The poll provisions and local government reform in Western Australia

Abstract

Local government reform is on the agenda of many countries, particularly those with local government systems based on the Anglo-Saxon approach. In many of these jurisdictions, from Wales to the Republic of Ireland, to most of the Australian states and New Zealand, the dominant reform narrative is structural change, and the challenge faced in most of these jurisdictions is how to marry the apparent national interest in creating bigger councils with the desire of citizens to have a say about how their towns and districts are governed; it is a debate that inevitably finds governments’ technical experts at odds with local citizens. The resulting challenge has led to a range of new approaches to structural reform, optimistically designed to meet the needs of both.