Long over-due reforms to the City of Sydney Act are currently before the NSW Parliament.
The reforms will fix changes introduced in 1998 that created barriers to prevent non-residential voters from exercising their democratic right.
To be clear, businesses have always had the right to vote.
“Sydney City Council received $188 million in business rates in the year to June 2013 and just 1,709 non-residential ratepayers enrolled to vote in the 2012 election.”
Since the City of Sydney was established in the 1800s, services were funded by the property owner or occupier, and ratepayers.
The decision was made that as the council was taxing property owners, it was those ratepayers which should elect its representatives on the city council.
The City of Sydney was a simpler place to be heard in the 1900s – where property owners, lease holders, building occupiers and lodgers who had lived in Sydney for six months could all vote.
But in the late 1990s, the non-residential roll began being deleted. Now for non-residential electors to vote they have to navigate through significant bureaucratic barriers within a three month period.
If they find a way through the red tape, they have to do it all again at the next election because the non-residential roll is erased.
No other Australian city deletes the non-residential roll after each election.
After a series of public hearings, submissions and a full inquiry, the bipartisan Joint Standing Committee on Electoral Matters found these laws have left shopkeepers, restaurant owners and other businesses without a voice.
The Committee said it was “concerned to hear that non-residential ratepayers in the City of Sydney were not exercising their right to vote” and called for permanency of the roll.
Some who claim there was no consultation did not even bother to make a submission to the Committee.
Others that did are simply scaremongering.
It is wrong to suggest this will give business a larger voice than residents.
A person can only be enrolled once, meaning they only get one vote. A person who owns 20 properties in Sydney will only be enrolled once, not 20 times.
“Now for non-residential electors to vote they have to navigate through significant bureaucratic barriers within a three month period. If they find a way through the red tape, they have to do it all again at the next election because the non-residential roll is erased. No other Australian city deletes the non-residential roll after each election.”
To be enrolled, non-residential electors must also be eligible to vote at Federal or State elections and they must be Australian citizens.
Australian Securities and Investment Commission, Land Property Management Authority and business surveys will guard against fraud or scam electors.
The proposals impose a limit of up to two non-residential voters from a single business entity. The Committee found it would facilitate parity and equity with households.
Where four people live in a house in Redfern, for example, all four of them can be enrolled
The reforms address an injustice that prevented those who contribute 78.5 per cent of the City of Sydney’s revenue ($188 million a year) exercising just 2.13 per cent of votes at the last election.
Sydney City Council received $188 million in business rates in the year to June 2013 and just 1,709 non-residential ratepayers enrolled to vote in the 2012 election.
Changes to the Act 16 years ago left shopkeepers, owners and lessees of businesses disenfranchised despite assurances they would be largely unaffected.
There should be no taxation without representation.
This goes beyond the political complexion of the city to restore a democratic right that was lost.
Paul Toole is the NSW Minister for Local Government.
