The way Warrnambool ratepayers will vote for their local council will change in 2024. Katrina Lovell explains
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00 This October, Warrnambool is going back to the polls for the local government elections.
00:04 But for ratepayers in Warrnambool, there's going to be a change. We're heading back to the ward
00:09 system rather than the 2020 election where we had 24 candidates to choose from. This time around,
00:16 you'll only be able to vote for those that nominate to run in your ward, which will give
00:22 you less people to choose from. If you happen to be in a ward where there's only one candidate that
00:27 nominates to run, you probably won't have to vote at all. The Victorian Electoral Commission has
00:34 decided to make this change for Warrnambool to make it fairer. It's not the first time that
00:40 Warrnambool has voted in a ward structure for its local government elections. Until 2004,
00:46 Warrnambool actually had a ward system and then went to an unsubdivided ward for the last decade,
00:52 but the switch has been forced on them by the Victorian Electoral Commission. Warrnambool will
00:57 be carved up into seven wards for the next local government elections. The Victorian Electoral
01:02 Commission itself described some of those wards as less than ideal. For instance, Dennington will be
01:09 lumped in with Woodford and Bushfield in its own ward. An attempt by Warrnambool City Council to
01:17 draw its own boundaries that it thought made more sense was rejected, instead going with one that
01:22 the Victorian Electoral Commission has decided. If you need to know more information about
01:27 the ward structure or the local upcoming elections, go to the standard website.
01:31 you
01:31 you
01:32 [BLANK_AUDIO]