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Business currently provides 78% of all rate revenue raised and approximately 55%-60% of all
revenue.
Business in the CBD account for 25% of this states GDP and 8% of the national GDP.
The Carr-Labor governments with the support of Clover Moore passed laws to effectively
remove the right of Business to vote in 2002.
The non-residential electoral roll is wiped after each Council election requiring business to
re-enrol. Procedures were put in place to make it difficult to re-enrol.
There are an estimate 50,000 plus eligible businesses in the Sydney LGA, only 1700 enrolled
at the last election to vote.
Business rates are being wasted on nutty schemes that are not core council responsibilities
such as the $10 million wasted on tri-generation electricity production which has not
resulted in one light bulb being switched on.
The bike path network was built using Business rates yet they were not consulted as to
whether they wanted them.
Questions
You can’t have a permanent roll because businesses come and go.
On average, a business stays within the LGA for five years, whereas residents stay on average two
years. Businesses are more stable. People also come and go and the current enrolment processes
cater for changes in address.
The Lord Mayor Clover Moore says keeping a permanent roll of businesses, rather than requiring
businesses to come forward at each election, would lead to inaccuracies and mean some people
who shouldn’t be voting will be able to.
There are currently and always has been inaccuracies with the residential roll as people leave the
LGA and do not update their new address details. This is more likely to occur with residents than
business as business on average stay longer in the LGA. The normal electoral commission processes
will apply for dealing with this very small anomaly.
Why should business get two votes?
A household only pays one set of rates, around $400. Most households have two or more eligible
voters living there who get to have a say for the payment of one set of rates, To be fair to business,
who pay higher rates (from $3,500 to $6,000) should also get the same equal voice as most
households.
Why should Business get a vote in Council elections, they don’t at state and federal elections?
No matter where you live, you get to have a say in the running of this country at state and federal
level and how your taxes should be used. Many business owners within the Sydney LGA do not live
there and as citizens are not eligible to vote in the Sydney Council elections, yet they pay rates to the
Sydney Council and as such should have a say in how their rates are used.
Only people should be able to vote, not organisations.
There should be no taxation without representation. If only individuals should be allowed to vote,
then organisations should not be forced to pay rates without a say as to how those rates are used.
Why are you making business vote compulsory?
It is currently the law in Australia that eligible voter are to vote compulsory. There is nothing more
Australian than voting in an election. The surest way to ensure accountability in any Government is
the protection the ballot box brings.
Why do you want business to vote by postal vote?
Many Business owners do not live in the Sydney LGA and have difficulty getting to a polling booth on
polling day. The Turner report has also recommended postal voting for all council voters as a way to
increase participation and reduce the cost of running an election.
The Lord Mayor Clover Moore says that Businesses can currently vote, but they choose not to.
Many business owners are unaware that they are eligible to vote, those that do face a herculean
task to be put on the electoral roll. The non-residential roll is wiped after each election forcing
business owners to re-enrol for each election. They have to fill out multiple forms and only have a
small window in which to enrol. Enrolment opens three months before the election and close two
weeks before the election. A tiny mistake and the enrolment form is rejected. Business owners have
little to no time to correct the mistake. Most business owners simply do not have the time to go
through the restrictive enrolment process.
The Lord Mayor Clover Moore says the franchise would be significantly broadened to include noncitizens, which could significantly risk the integrity of City of Sydney elections by allowing and
encouraging roll-stacking and voter harvesting.
There is no evidence of this. We simply wish to give the business community who contribute 78% of
all rate revenue a voice. Only those who are eligible to vote ate the State and Federal level can vote
in a Council election. There should be no taxation without representation. Why is the Lord Mayor
afraid of democracy?
The Lord Mayor Clover Moore says the move to exclusive postal voting and abolition of
attendance voting could enable voter fraud and corruption and could result in fewer citizenresidents casting their votes.
There is no evidence of this. Postal voting has been around for a long time and has worked well.
Evidence has shown that people are more and more turning to postal voting at each election at all
levels. Also see the above answer to postal voting.
The Lord Mayor Clover Moore says additional burdens would be imposed on business in providing
the information the City would require to prepare the non-residential roll, and in being
compulsorily required to be enrolled and vote.
There will be no additional burden placed on business in providing information to the City of Sydney
council. The Turner recommendation states that the roll will be prepared from information on
ratepayers supplied by the Council, ASIC and Electoral staff canvasing business as they currently do
for residents before each election.
The Lord Mayor Clover Moore says that the current system must be retained because in 1995, the
Crown Solicitor warned it would be unsafe to hold a City of Sydney election given concerns about
serious inaccuracies in the business electoral rolls.
No evidence was ever produced to support this claim and this was twenty years ago, a lot has
changed since. The roll then and now is maintained by the City of Sydney. In fact the opposite has
now occurred, where a number of eligible non-residential voters were hampered in their efforts to
be enrolled and in some cases, city staff outright refused to give out the Rate Payer number required
to enrol. As stated earlier, it is more likely today to be a problem with the residential roll as residents
stay in the LGA on average half the time as business. This is why we are asking the respected
Electoral Commission to form and maintain the roll that can employ data matching technology to
ensure the accuracy of the roll. As an example, when a loved one passes away, the Department of
Births, Deaths and Marriages informs the Electoral Commission and they are automatically removed
from the roll.
The Lord Mayor says this Bill is unfair and undemocratic.
To the contrary, taxation without representation is undemocratic and unfair.
Business should not be forced to vote.
The current law is that all eligible voters must vote. If a business manages to get onto the roll then
they must by law vote. The Lord Mayor seems to be advocating an end to compulsory voting on all
levels or is the Lord Mayor only cherry picking those laws she likes?
Businesses should not get two votes; there should be one vote, one value.
The two votes are to make it fair for businesses that can employ hundreds. It was the Bracks
government that introduced two votes to Melbourne (and the Bracks government that introduced
the Melbourne model). The reason? Most residential properties that pay one set of rates have two
or more voters living there. The choice is either one vote per set of rates, or a vote for each person
who resides at a place that pays rates? You can’t have it both ways. Does the Lord Mayor advocate
that everyone in a commercial building with perhaps 1,000 occupants all be given a vote instead of
the proposed two?
You can’t give businesses a vote as it will lead to corruption and will let property developers rule
the roost.
There is absolutely no evidence for this outrageous claim. In our experience, city business owners
are honest, hardworking people. In recent weeks, many businesses have contacted us upset at being
labelled corrupt. Remember these are people who quietly go about their lives employing people,
creating opportunity, complying with a myriad of laws, regulations and paying the bulk of taxes.
They have plenty of skin in the game. Small business is the backbone of our city business community,
not second class citizens and exactly the sort of person you want casting a ballot on Election Day.
There has been no consultation.
There have been two reviews, the Samson and Turner reviews, three rounds of public submissions,
and a Parliamentary enquiry with more submissions. There has been plenty of consultation. This bill
reflects the findings of all these reviews and submissions. The Member for Sydney did not make any
submissions and did not even bother to turn up to the Parliamentary enquiry which was held in the
same building that he works in.
The Lord Mayor is Championing the Member for Sydney’s bill which she says is better.
The Member for Sydney is proposing to put in place a register that the Electoral Commission may
use. This is just another layer that businesses have to go through with the same hurdles in order to
vote. This bill is trying to be seen to be doing something while actually making it harder. Besides, we
already have a register; it is called the Yellow Pages.