Attention young, intelligent, people – we need to talk about the elections
Young people, you:
1/ live longer than old people, on average.
2/ could be making the important decisions for your future.
3/ should stand for council next year and send baby boomers into retirement.
The NSW electoral commission says if you want to register a political party for the 2021 council elections, it needs to be done asap.
To receive the benefits of registration, a new party would need to be registered 12 months before the closing date of the election.
The closing date is the 40th day before the election.
And the commission says the registration process takes a few weeks.
The election is scheduled now for September 4, 2021.
Single Candidate registrations for the 2021 council elections are also open now and have been for some time.
People who had registered for the 2020 election will remain registered.
Here’s my appeal to young people to seriously think about this.
It is fake news to say local government is boring.
Council invades a person’s life, even if they are not aware of it. Roads, rates, rubbish is how we used to sum it up but it’s much more than that.
It is water, sewage, the environment, the parks, the waterways, the libraries, the events; the rules about where you build a house, where you put a shopping strip, how you manage parking. It’s about huge financial decision. The list goes on. Council decisions affect all our lives daily.
Last time NSW voted, most of the 1273 councillors voted-in on 128 councils were aged over 60.
In fact, the 60 to 69 year olds were over-represented on councils at nearly three times the NSW population of that age.
These baby boomers, quite frankly, need to move on.
I feel qualified to say that, because I too am a baby boomer, ok?
The next biggest group elected were people over 50. They are infiltrating the ranks and creating an orderly changing of the guard.
Less than five per cent of today’s councillors are aged under 30.
That is not representative of communities.
People aged between 20 and 29 account for 14 per cent of the Australian population according to the 2016 census while people aged 60 to 69 were only 10.7 per cent of the population.
We the people need younger people on council.
Have a think: Is it you we’re looking for?
– Merilyn
