A message from the Mayor: Our amazing democracy and community

Published on 28 November 2022

Recently I have been looking at democracy in Australia.

I have been reading Secret Ballot to Democracy Sausage by Judith Brett. It tells the amazing story of our country’s democratic changes and improvements.

In preparing for the visit of the Canadian Friendship Force that I wrote about last week, I found an amazing coincidence. Our rules for participatory democracy, which were adopted in NSW parliament in 1851, came from Canada.

The 1838 rebellion in Lower Canada (now Quebec) prompted the Canadian Governor-General, Lord Durham, to recommend a new democratic model. Sixty of the rebels were convicted and transported to the colony of NSW in 1840. They ultimately settled in Drummoyne near Canada Bay.

Australians have impressively led the world in many aspects of democracy, including secret ballots, granting women the right to vote in 1902, postal voting, preferential voting, Saturday voting, and the right of women to stand for parliament.

Some think Australia should bring back ‘first past-the-post’ voting. To me this is not a fair system. For example, an election with 5 candidates using this method would make it possible for a person to be declared a winner with only 21% of the vote. In other words, they would be elected without the support of 79% of the electorate. Under our preference system voters get more choices if their first choice is not successful.

Brett named her final chapter We Are Good At Elections. I agree! In fact, here in Kempsey we are not just good, but great at democracy.

Our amazing supportive community

This Saturday is International Day of People with Disability. Around 1 in 6 people in our community live with disability. They, and their carers, are inspiring individuals with amazing stories.

Here in the Shire, the celebrations happen at Riverside Park on Friday from 10-2 with our Big Day Out festival. It is a fantastic free community event and details are at ksc.pub/bigdayout

Our amazing heroes

Finally, have you nominated a Citizen of the Year or Local Hero yet? Perhaps someone living with disability or their carer? It’s easy to nominate someone at www.ksc.pub/australia-day until 15 December.