Published Tuesday, 26 February, 2008 at 05:07 PM
Minister for Main Roads and Local Government
The Honourable Warren Pitt
Council mergers not impacting number of women contesting elections
Claims that council amalgamations will see proportionally fewer women in local government are without foundation, Local Government Minister Warren Pitt said today.
Mr Pitt said while amalgamations would mean fewer councillors in total, the proportion of women nominating to be involved in local government had not been affected by council mergers.
“The Local Government Association has claimed that there will be proportionally fewer women mayors and councillors as a result of council amalgamations.
“However, an analysis of the nominations for next month’s local council elections shows this is unlikely to be the case at all.
“Currently, there are 25 mayors who are women, or 16 per cent of all mayoral positions. For the upcoming elections, there are 46 women nominating for mayor which represents 17 per cent of all mayoral nominations, which is similar to the proportion nominating in 2004.
“While obviously the final number of female mayors will not be known until the election results are finalised, the amalgamation process has not affected the proportion of women nominating to be mayor of their council,” Mr Pitt said.
“It is the same story for women who have nominated to be a councillor.
“Currently, there are 317 female councillors, which represents 30 per cent of all councillor positions. For the 2008 elections, 423 women have nominated for councillor positions, which is 31 per cent of all nominations, a slightly higher proportion than in 2004.”
“While I would have liked to see even higher numbers of women nominating for mayoral and councillor positions, the proportion of women contesting this year’s elections has not changed significantly from the 2004 local council elections.
“I would expect the proportion of women elected as mayors and councillors to broadly align with the proportion of women candidates.
“These claims that council amalgamations will result in proportionally fewer women being elected to local government positions have no basis in fact. Like many of the other unfounded criticisms of the much-needed local government reforms that have been introduced, they belong more in the realms of fiction.”
Media contact: Minister Pitt’s Office 3227 8819
Mr Pitt said while amalgamations would mean fewer councillors in total, the proportion of women nominating to be involved in local government had not been affected by council mergers.
“The Local Government Association has claimed that there will be proportionally fewer women mayors and councillors as a result of council amalgamations.
“However, an analysis of the nominations for next month’s local council elections shows this is unlikely to be the case at all.
“Currently, there are 25 mayors who are women, or 16 per cent of all mayoral positions. For the upcoming elections, there are 46 women nominating for mayor which represents 17 per cent of all mayoral nominations, which is similar to the proportion nominating in 2004.
“While obviously the final number of female mayors will not be known until the election results are finalised, the amalgamation process has not affected the proportion of women nominating to be mayor of their council,” Mr Pitt said.
“It is the same story for women who have nominated to be a councillor.
“Currently, there are 317 female councillors, which represents 30 per cent of all councillor positions. For the 2008 elections, 423 women have nominated for councillor positions, which is 31 per cent of all nominations, a slightly higher proportion than in 2004.”
“While I would have liked to see even higher numbers of women nominating for mayoral and councillor positions, the proportion of women contesting this year’s elections has not changed significantly from the 2004 local council elections.
“I would expect the proportion of women elected as mayors and councillors to broadly align with the proportion of women candidates.
“These claims that council amalgamations will result in proportionally fewer women being elected to local government positions have no basis in fact. Like many of the other unfounded criticisms of the much-needed local government reforms that have been introduced, they belong more in the realms of fiction.”
Media contact: Minister Pitt’s Office 3227 8819