Casey City Council Representation Review

6 Nov

Preliminary submissions open

WEDNESDAY 6 NOVEMBER 2019

6 Nov

Information session

5.30 PM WEDNESDAY 6 NOVEMBER 2019

Function Centre, Bunjil Place, 2 Patrick Northeast Drive, Narre Warren

An information session will be held for anyone wanting to find out more about the review process.

4 Dec

Preliminary submissions close

5.00 PM WEDNESDAY 4 DECEMBER 2019

Submissions must be received by the VEC by 5.00 pm on this day. Late submissions will not be accepted.

5 Feb

Preliminary report

WEDNESDAY 5 FEBRUARY 2020

The VEC releases a preliminary report including one or more options for the electoral structure. Response submissions open from this date.

4 Mar

Response submission close

5.00 PM WEDNESDAY 4 MARCH 2020

Submissions must be received by the VEC by 5.00 pm on this day. Late submissions will not be accepted.

11 Mar

Public hearing

6.00 PM WEDNESDAY 11 MARCH 2020

Function Centre, Bunjil Place, 2 Patrick Northeast Drive, Narre Warren

A public hearing will be held if anyone requests to speak about their response submission. The public hearing will not be held if there are no requests to speak.

1 Apr

Final report

WEDNESDAY 1 APRIL 2020

The VEC submits a final report to the Minister for Local Government including the recommendation for the electoral structure.

The review The Victorian Electoral Commission (VEC) is conducting an electoral representation review of Casey City Council.

The review examines:

• whether the Council has the appropriate number of councillors

• whether the Council should be unsubdivided, with councillors elected from the whole Council, or subdivided into wards

• if subdivided, the number of wards, ward boundaries and the number of councillors per ward.

Representation reviews are an important part of democracy and your input is valuable. As a local, you know your council area better than anyone. This is your chance to let us know your thoughts about how well your community is represented.

There are three main opportunities for you to have your say:

1. in a preliminary submission

2. in a response submission to the preliminary report and

3. if you have requested to speak in your response submission, at a public hearing to be held in your local area.

Council Overview

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Casey City Council The City of Casey is located on the south-eastern fringe of the Greater Melbourne metropolitan area. It covers an area of 407 square kilometres extending from the base of the Dandenong Ranges in the north to the Westernport shoreline in the south. The City forms part of the Casey-Cardinia growth area and includes established and rapidly growing suburbs, commercial districts and farming lands.

The City of Casey is socially and culturally diverse. Currently about 38% of the population were born outside of Australia. Significant numbers of people were born in India (6%), Sri Lanka (3.8%) and Afghanistan (2.9%). About 36% of the population speak a language other than English at home, including Sinhalese, Punjabi, Dari, Mandarin and Hindi. In 2018 the City of Casey became home to 256 humanitarian, 2,034 family and 1,589 skilled migrants.

The City has a relatively young age profile. The median age is 34 years and children aged 0-14 years make up 22.7% of the population. Between 2011 and 2016 large numbers of people moved to the City of Casey from overseas (16,250) and from neighbouring local councils, including Greater Dandenong (7,690), Frankston (2,400), Monash (2,210) and Knox (2,170). The age group that moved to the City in the greatest numbers were those aged 25-34 years.

Around 90% of houses in the City of Casey are separate dwellings. The City has a large number of homeowners (75% of all households) and nearly 70% of homeowners have mortgages on their homes. Renters comprise 21.3% of all households, which is much less than Greater Melbourne (30%).

Those working in health care and social assistance more than doubled between 2006 and 2016, from 8,339 to 16,830. However, manufacturing is still the main employer, though it declined somewhat from 20,478 to 17,067 over the same period. Other important industries of employment include construction, retail, and education and training.

Residents in the City of Casey rely heavily on car travel, with almost 80% of people travelling to work by car compared with about 67% for Greater Melbourne.

The City of Casey is one of Australia’s fastest growing local councils, increasing by almost 85,000 people between 2006 and 2016 from 214,962 to nearly 300,000. Growth will continue at a projected rate of 2.4% per year so that by 2031 the population is expected to be 481,380.

The traditional owners of the land are the Bunurong people and the Wurrundjeri people.

Current structure Casey City Council currently consists of eleven councillors elected from six wards (five two-councillor wards and one single-councillor ward).

Last review The last electoral representation review of Casey City Council took place in 2012. The VEC’s final recommendation was for Casey City Council to remain with eleven councillors elected from six wards (five two-councillor wards and one single-councillor ward), with changes to the ward boundaries. A subdivision review was conducted prior to the 2016 local government elections to correct ward boundaries affected by the rapidly changing enrolment.

Visit the VEC website at vec.vic.gov.au to access a copy of the 2012 and 2015 final reports.

Current electoral structure

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One vote, one value The VEC is committed to the principle of ‘one vote, one value’, which is described in the Local Government Act 1989 (the Act). This means that every person’s vote counts equitably.

If the local council area is subdivided into wards, the number of voters represented by each councillor in each ward must be within plus-or-minus 10% of the average number of voters per councillor across the local council.

The map above includes the number of voters in each ward and the ward’s current deviation from the average number of voters per councillor across the local council. During the review, the VEC takes into account likely population changes (growth or decline) to ensure the electoral structure will provide equitable representation until the next review (reviews take place approximately every 12 years).

If you make a submission online, you can use the Boundary Builder tool to build your preferred electoral structure. The tool uses current voter numbers to tell you the deviations of the wards you make. This means you can make sure your proposed structure currently meets the requirements of the Act.

Statistics

Area (km2) 407

Voters Voter density (per km2) 550

Average voters per councillor

20,356

Population Current population 299,301

Forecast population growth

2.4% p.a.

Further census statistics available at: abs.gov.au

Voter numbers by locality

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How to make a submission

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You can make a submission to the review via:

the VEC website at vec.vic.gov.au

email to casey.review@vec.vic.gov.au

post to Victorian Electoral Commission Level 11, 530 Collins Street Melbourne VIC 3000

To be considered, submissions must include your:

• full name • residential or postal address.

All submissions are published on the VEC website at vec.vic.gov.au. Your name and locality will be published but your full address and contact details will be removed.

Submission guide Download a submission guide from the VEC website at vec.vic.gov.au for more information on the review process and to help you make your submission.

Submission checklist

I have included my full name and address

I know that my submission will be published, including my full name and locality

I have read the submission guide

Preliminary submission

I have included the number of councillors that I want (between five and 12) and why

I have said whether I want an unsubdivided or subdivided structure and why

If I want a subdivided structure, I have considered the ward boundaries

Response submission

I have responded to the options in the preliminary report

I have said whether I want to speak about my submission at the public hearing