Council’s ‘abysmal state of affairs’ blamed for low voter turnout
New electoral reforms will strengthen the local government system, said the minister, who blamed the current low voting rate in Adelaide’s Central Ward on the council.
From 2026, all voters in council elections will need to be citizens, in changes announced on Wednesday.
The suite of reforms, expected to be introduced in parliament next month, comes as the Adelaide City Council is experiencing low voter turnout in a supplementary election.
At the time of writing, returned votes are just shy of 1800, and there are 13,200 potential voters, according to the Electoral Commission.
When InDaily asked if the incoming reforms would tackle this, Local Government Minister Joe Szakacs said Adelaide City Council’s voter turnout problem was “a reflection on the abysmal state of affairs” among councillors.
“I think the low turnout in the Central Ward for the City of Adelaide is a reflection on the abysmal state of affairs of some of the members of the council, some of the childish behaviour, some of the focus on internal grievances over city leadership, that is what’s turning voters away,” he said.
“Councils and councillors need to get their own house in order before they force a massive change on our sector which will impact everybody.”
The comments follow a four-hour-long evening of committee meetings on Tuesday, which included two attempts at suspending councillors, a censure, and heckling from the public.
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Lord Mayor Jane Lomax-Smith said: “I would have thought this type of behaviour provides more impetus for people to vote and choose who represents them”.
“However, I would add that democracy suffers when antics overshadow issues,” she said.
The reforms will not be in place in time to apply to the currently ongoing supplementary election in Central Ward.
Currently, voting in council elections is voluntary, and you don’t have to be an Australian citizen. Ratepayers who have lived in the area for three months or more can participate.
Szakacs said the election reforms would “future-proof” the election system by taking away this “anomaly” and bringing voting requirements in line with state and federal elections, where you have to be an Australian citizen.
“What this does is seeks to future-proof what has been, in my view, an anomaly in our system where non-citizens have been able to exercise their democratic privilege,” he said.
The reforms follow a 2022 report from the Electoral Commission of South Australia (ECSA), which was tabled in parliament in April, containing 19 recommendations from the Commissioner.
The 2022 council elections saw the Commission receive 570 complaints about alleged breaches of electoral law, including a long-running court case disputing an election result that led to a judge voiding four councillors’ positions on the Adelaide City Council, leading to the current supplementary election.
Lomax-Smith said “any reforms that will strengthen election integrity will have the full support of this council”.
“The role for elections rightly belongs to an independent electoral commission. Council will continue to support the Electoral Commission of South Australia over the coming days in encouraging voter participation and stressing the importance of eligible voters having their say.”
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The Electoral Commissioner told InDaily that ECSA has been consulted about the reforms.
In March, the court ruled that illegal practices did impact the Adelaide City Council election, with illegally handled ballot papers collected from student apartments.
The judgment did not explicitly find that those identified with illegal votes were international students or non-citizens.
However, a student apartment building was at the centre of the case, and a theme that arose during the proceedings was a campaign to enrol voters, which included members of the Chinese student community.
Szakacs said that “notwithstanding the length of time that this took”, the Central Ward case shows “the safeguards that are in place do work”.
“The illegal practices that were found in the City of Adelaide were very concerning, but also the potential exploitation of the process needed action, and we can never lay any stone unturned when it comes to ensuring confidence in our electoral systems,” he said.
“We have the strongest, most rigorous election framework in our nation, in our state, of anywhere in the world, but we are committed to ensuring that we maintain that status and that we continue to have the great confidence of the community.”
After the court judgement, Legislative Councillor Frank Pangallo, now a member of the Liberal party, introduced a private members’ bill to reform council voting, making it compulsory and for citizens only.
Pangallo posted on his Facebook page after the announcement and wrote that he has been pushing for reforms in this space for six years, paired with a photoshopped ‘thanks’ from Szakacs.
Pangallo’s Bill already passed the Upper House. When asked why the government introduced its own bill, rather than amend Pangallo’s, Szakacs said his government’s was “far more comprehensive”.
“Frank Pangallo’s Bill was deficient; it didn’t provide for the same universal protection for citizens that our proposal will,” he said.
“As I said before, when it comes to ensuring that we have free and fair elections, of which the community is confident in, we can leave no stone unturned, and that’s why we are pursuing a much further and much more rigorous regime than Frank Pangallo proposed.”
These reforms will not make voting compulsory in council elections, but Szakacs said that doesn’t mean it can’t happen in the future.
“We also think that there is room for councils themselves to restore faith in the community of the way that council chambers and councils operate,” he said.
“That’s when it will be open to governments in the future to consider compulsory voting, but I still think there’s some work to be done in the meantime.”
The reforms will undergo further consultation with ECSA and the Local Government Association in the coming month before being brought to parliament.
