LOCAL GOVERNMENT REFORM FOR WESTERN AUSTRALIA

LOCAL GOVERNMENT REFORM

FOR

WESTERN AUSTRALIA

Hosted for the WA Local Government Reform Alliance

https://www.facebook.com/groups/1788171804737144/

INDEX TO SITE CONTENT AND PUBLIC LINKS

The WA Local Government Reform Alliance is a diverse movement of concerned citizens and organisations dedicated to restoring

freedom, democracy, openness, transparency, ethical conduct and the Rule of Law

in Local Government

A VOICE FOR THE GOVERNED

The light shines through the darkness and the darkness can never extinguish it

When we shine our light into the darkness the darkness fades away and all is revealed - nothing can hide

Seek and ye shall find

Knock and the door shall be opened to you

Perseverance pays off

Truth and justice will prevail

This website is presented in support of the WA Local Government Reform Alliance – a diverse common interest group of concerned Electors and Ratepayers who are committed to reforming the Local Government Industry in Western Australia to achieve its constitutional purpose of “better government”.

All information presented in this website is provided for public education and information in the public interest and for the public good,

and is protected under Commonwealth and State Law.

IMPORTANT NOTICE:

The information presented in this web page is generic to ALL local governments in Western Australia.

If you are an eligible "elector" for local government elections in Western Australia it is vital you read and understand the significance of what is happening to your freedom through the progressive erosion of your civil and political rights under existing arrangements determined by executive government.

This website presents fair comment political commentary about the covert progressive erosion of democratic and civil rights in the sovereign state of Western Australia.

Since the enactment of the Local Government Act 1995, which changed the form, structure, scope, powers, functions, administration and operation of Local Government that had been in place since 1960, no political party has shown interest in restoring, protecting and preserving essential civil and political rights established by the 1689 English Bill of Rights and the United Nations International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which Australia is a signatory.

In particular, the UN Covenant declares;

Article 2: Non-Discrimination, Constitutional and Legal Framework within which the Covenant is Implemented, and Access to Remedies

1. Each State Party to the present Covenant undertakes to respect and to ensure to all individuals within its territory and subject to its jurisdiction the rights recognized in the present Covenant, without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status.

2. Where not already provided for by existing legislative or other measures, each State Party to the present Covenant undertakes to take the necessary steps, in accordance with its constitutional processes and with the provisions of the present Covenant, to adopt such laws or other measures as may be necessary to give effect to the rights recognized in the present Covenant.

3. Each State Party to the present Covenant undertakes:

(a) To ensure that any person whose rights or freedoms as herein recognized are violated shall have an effective remedy, notwithstanding that the violation has been

committed by persons acting in an official capacity;

(b) To ensure that any person claiming such a remedy shall have his right thereto determined by competent judicial, administrative or legislative authorities, or by any

other competent authority provided for by the legal system of the State, and to develop the possibilities of judicial remedy;

Article 25: Electoral Rights

Every citizen shall have the right and the opportunity, without any of the distinctions mentioned in article 2 and without unreasonable restrictions:

(a) To take part in the conduct of public affairs, directly or through freely chosen representatives;

(b) To vote and to be elected at genuine periodic elections which shall be by universal and equal suffrage and shall be held by secret ballot, guaranteeing the free expression of the will of the electors;

Article 26: Equality Before The Law

All persons are equal before the law and are entitled without any discrimination to the equal protection of the law.

In this respect, the law shall prohibit any discrimination and guarantee to all persons equal and effective protection against discrimination on any ground such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status

Despite the noble rights and values expressed in the United Nations International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights neither the Commonwealth nor Western Australia governments have seen fit to implement them into local government law, leaving us with limited rights and limited remedies

The Western Australia Constitution Act 1899 (as amended by Act No. 88 of 1979) prescribes:

52. Elected local governing bodies

(1) The Legislature shall maintain a system of local governing bodies elected and constituted in such manner as the Legislature may from time to time provide.

(2) Each elected local governing body shall have such powers as the Legislature may from time to time provide being such powers as the Legislature considers necessary for the better government of the area in respect of which the body is constituted.

Western Australia has been slowly and quietly transitioning from a liberal democracy system of government under The Rule of Law to a socialist state. This is a dangerous trend, supported by covert decision making by unelected officials in local governments where Councils deliberately hand over their decision making role to their employees via "delegation".

Councillors are well paid to make decisions and to be responsible and accountable to the law and the Electorate for those decisions.

Of relevance to local government are two Clauses in the 1689 English Bill of Rights that declare;

That the pretended power of suspending the laws or the execution of laws by regal authority without consent of Parliament is illegal;

That the pretended power of dispensing with laws or the execution of laws by regal authority, as it hath been assumed and exercised of late, is illegal;

"pretended power" means power assumed or claimed. "regal authority" means "The Crown" and its agents.

For more than sixty years the Local Government industry has preyed on the ignorance of the public, enabling it to do its work covertly and without accountability.

This factual and objective report is devoted to the causes of freedom, freedom of speech, civil and political rights, and opposition to political censorship in a "democratic" society.

It demonstrates how your civil and political rights are being slowly eroded over time by officials who not only have little or no regard for civil rights law or the principles of "democracy" but also bamboozle Elected Members by complication, obfuscation and selective manipulation of information.

It also shows how the mantra of “openness and transparency” is an illusion.

It is presented in good faith in the public interest for the publick goode.

Its purpose is to inform and educate you, the Ratepayer, Resident, Elector, Citizen and "Member of the Public", how your democratic rights, established for centuries under the Rule of Law, are being eroded by stealth.

Its purpose is also to inform and educate you of the ethos, ethics, policies and practices of your Local Government and to assist you decide if your Councillors and Local Government are complying with the law, representing your will and fulfilling your expectations in their role as your elected representatives.

If you decide they are not, then raise your voice and tell them what you expect from them.

The community’s ultimate political and social goal is to achieve truth, justice, freedom, compliance with the Rule of Law and civil rights in the Local Government sector in Western Australia.

After 200 years of evolution, government in Australia has created a tier of government at the local level that runs counter to the established fairness and equality values of a liberal democracy state and our federal so-called “Westminster” system of government.

Despite being under the same Crown, the Local Government Act 1995 bestows local government with a self-governing “autonomous” status generally independent to and free from Ministerial control. It has thereby been freed from the normal checks, balances, rights of appeal and public accountability that citizens are accustomed to in the state and federal stratas.

Local government in Western Australia has developed into a self-regulating, self-sustaining, self-promoting socialist autocracy that considers itself to be above the law - but cherry picks laws to suit its purposes for governance of its subjects.

It looks down upon its subjects with hubris and an aloofness not seen in other forms of government. It does not see itself as the servant of the people but instead sees itself as superior to ordinary mortals who must kow-tow in total submission and subservience if they want their voice to be heard within its hallowed walls.

It freely mixes and interchanges the traditional separation of powers in government such that legislative, executive, administrative and enforcement powers merge into an unravelable stew implemented by the same people - i.e. there is no separation.

The delegation of powers ensures that junior officers carry the power and might of the State upon their prey, who may be applying for a planning application, building permit, permission to keep a few chooks or a dog or cat or a horse or a goat etc, or who want to operate a business, who want to excavate their land, or do an activity not within a prescribed zoning and so on.

Decisions are invariably discretional, subject to the individual officer’s view of the world. In many cases appeal or review is not practically available.

When challenged, local governments close ranks and unite in defence.

A new tactic is for a Councillor or officer to claim he or she is being "bullied" – purely because the other party disagreed with them.

Fear of reprisal is a constant presence.

Town Planning Schemes bestow draconian powers upon Local Government officers to determine what numbers and species of plant are permissible to plant in a mandatorily imposed landscaping design for new developments.

Local Government can and does deny street access. It arbitrarily builds traffic islands in front of people’s driveways, preventing access or egress, regardless of harm.

Local government considers it does need to communicate with, consult or consider the aspirations or views of those it governs unless communication benefits its self-promoting purpose or it is required by Acts or Regulations to do that.

Local Government considers it is the keeper of a community’s “amenity” and will happily reject applications for new buildings in a particular are if it considers they will impact the “amenity”.

Numerous official enquiries and reviews show the current Local Government Act 1995 lacks definition and clarity in many aspects, resulting in considerable confusion and infighting between Councils and their administration officers over who has ultimate powers over various functional responsibilities and decision making.

Despite the Act clearly prescribing Councils are in charge of (govern) their local government, and the CEO is employed under a master/servant relationship to and by Council, progressive incremental changes over the years now see CEO’s and subordinate officers refusing to comply with Council directions or to provide access to information needed to support sound decision making.

Councillors are now reduced to making collective decisions based only upon the information provided to them by their officers. Councillors are prohibited from speaking adversely about the integrity or accuracy of officer reports and are limited to requesting further clarification of officer recommendations. Councillors cannot introduce external evidence to support argument contrary to officer reports, so are bound to be spoon fed with whatever information its officers determine.

Officers are developing a self-sustaining industry for complaints to a Local Government Standards Panel – a costly and lengthy process that produces no real benefit to anyone, but develops angst within a Local Government that poisons future functioning and positive community benefit.

The Act does not provide protections for the office of Mayor or Shire President, resulting in recent examples of Mayors being denied office space, secretarial support or services by their subordinates.

The time has come for urgent remedial action to repair the Local Government system to enable it to perform the social governance function Parliament has bestowed upon it.

DEMAND YOUR inalienable RIGHTS ARE RESTORED AND UPHELD !!!!

Contact your Member of the WA Parliament and protest loudly.

Your freedoms and rights as enshrined in law are being progressively taken away by stealth, covert subterfuge, Orwellian behaviour, hegemony, kafkaesque and self-serving bureacracies.

INDEX TO SITE CONTENT AND PUBLIC LINKS

"Whether the mask is labeled fascism, democracy, or dictatorship of the proletariat, our great adversary remains the apparatus - the bureaucracy, the police, the military.

Not the one facing us across the frontier of the battle lines, which is not so much our enemy as our brothers' enemy, but the one that calls itself our protector and makes us its slaves.

No matter what the circumstances, the worst betrayal will always be to subordinate ourselves to this apparatus and to trample underfoot, in its service, all human values in ourselves and in others. Simone Weil