I write to correct misinformation published in an article (Wollongong councillors fight business votes plan, Mercury, August 26), in regard to reforms to the City of Sydney Act currently before the NSW Parliament.
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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. Unfortunately, to do so 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 deleted.
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 businesses without a vote.
Some who claim there was no consultation did not even bother to make a submission. Others that did are simply scaremongering.
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.
The reforms address an injustice that prevented those who contribute 78.5per cent of the City of Sydney’s rate revenue ($188million a year) exercising just 2.13per cent of votes at the last election.
Paul Toole, Minister for Local Government