City of Canning Commissioner presents wants of residents in local government reform

That meant pushing for the City’s borders to remain unchanged, despite admitting he expected Canning to be broken up.

He said his position on local government reform was not his personal opinion but the position the community had asked him to take.

‘I would have put Cannington in South Perth/Vic Park, I would have given all of the western suburbs to Melville, I would have given Canning Vale to Gosnells and I would have made the South Perth/Vic Park boundary go down to Roe Highway,’ he said.

‘But, of course, the community asked me to take a very different position so I thought about it for a while; it was my responsibility, so therefore I opposed it.’

Mr Reynolds also said he was concerned the State Government was pushing for councils with 200,000 residents ” a number he thought should be halved.

‘Many of their residents would tell you they are pretty impersonal,’ he said.

‘They don’t know their councillors, they don’t see their councillors.’

He said that with bigger councils, decisions would be based around majority views rather than consensus, which was not a good thing.

‘How much is it going to cost the mayor to get elected?’ Mr Reynolds asked.

‘The council of Moreton Bay in Queensland, the mayor’s election campaign cost a quarter of a million dollars.

‘It means the mayors of the future will be very rich.

‘Or they’ll be beholden to those that finance their electoral campaigns and I don’t think that’s a good thing.’