The head of Tasmania’s local government association has backed plans to slash councillor numbers by 60 and give the remaining representatives a minimum 14% pay rise.
Mick Tucker, Mayor of Break O’Day Council and President of the Local Government Association of Tasmania, said the move would be “warmly welcomed” by the sector.
“This is one of the major issues that was raised in 2022 in the local government reform,” Tucker told the ABC on Monday.
“Basically, it’s come up at every meeting. We want less councillors.”
The state government’s discussion paper proposes cutting 60 positions from the current 263 councillors across Tasmania’s 29 councils.
The changes would be cost-neutral to ratepayers, with savings from fewer positions funding the pay rises.
Tucker argued the cuts would attract stronger candidates who understand the workload involved.
He noted that some councillors have been elected with as few as 50 votes after preferences.
“We need to be contemporary. We need to bring our standard to what’s relevant of today,” Tucker said.
“The old adage, you know, councillors are only roads, rates and rubbish is so far away from what councillors do today.”
Some councillors currently earn just $11,599 a year despite managing multimillion-dollar assets and overseeing decisions on healthcare, childcare and infrastructure, Tucker said.
“Nobody stands to be elected for council for the money,” he said.
“They do it because they want to represent their community to the very best of their ability.”
Tasmania has the second-highest proportion of councillors per capita in Australia.
Public submissions on the changes are open until November 7. Individual councils will prepare their own responses.
Tucker admitted some pushback was expected but said the government had “threaded the eye of the needle really well” with a balanced approach.
