The state government appears to be backing away from key aspects of a bill for overhauling elections for the City of Sydney, including reconsidering a controversial proposal to give businesses two votes.
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Parliament was set to debate the bill on Wednesday. But it was pulled from the agenda.
Last-minute changes to several of its key measures are now being considered.
"There are a range of amendments being considered," said MP Gareth Ward, who chaired the parliamentary committee that first recommended the changes."We as a government are looking at the entirety of the legislation."
The bill was introduced by the Shooters and Fishers Party and, until now, with the government's backing.
Mr Ward confirmed the government was considering keeping businesses at one vote while making an amendment to ensure that small business owners are not disenfranchised - a potential problem with the legislation reported by Fairfax last week.
In August, Premier Mike Baird spoke favourably about a draft proposal to give businesses two votes.
Giving businesses a double vote - a model that was adopted by Melbourne's city council - has the potential to sink Lord Mayor Clover Moore's political stronghold by flooding elections with tens of thousands of new, more conservative electors.
The government will still press ahead with changes to make it compulsory for businesses to vote.
Alex Greenwich, an independent MP and political ally of Cr Moore, said government MPs had signalled that dropping support for double votes for businesses was likely.
"There's been a strong community campaign which the government has listened to," he said. "It's been forced to rethink its support and significantly amend the legislation."
The NSW Parliament's legislation review committee criticised the bill earlier this week.
"The committee is concerned [business voters] may be granted a disproportionate influence on the election," it said.
On Monday, an independent review of a similar voting system in the City of Melbourne recommended that businesses revert to only having one vote.
The Minister for Local Government, Paul Toole, would not confirm that the government would drop its support for endowing businesses with two votes but foreshadowed changes.
"There are a number of issues that have been raised with the Shooters and Fishers Bill," he said. "If there are amendments to be made, we will be considering them over the coming week."
About 100,000 people were enrolled at the last City of Sydney election. Only about 1700 businesses voted.
smh.com.au