TARLIA JORDAN: How did you end up in this position?

KATRENA STEPHENSON:  I have worked in state government for a number of years in various policy roles and I saw a job advertised at LGAT as a policy director, so I applied and did that for a number of years. I have worked in local government 10 plus years, but have been CEO for over three years.

TJ: What is local government and why is it important?

KS: It is the sphere of government that is closest to communities. It makes decisions regarding local communities and shapes them for the future.  

Because local government is smaller, they’re hearing why communities are important, they’re able to advocate for their local communities and deliver local services and infrastructure.

TJ: Why should people vote?

KS: People need to think of voting as a privilege not to be squandered at. 

By voting in local government elections you’re really determining what your community is going to look like now and in to the future. 

Not every country has that right and we should take it up and really influence where we live.

TJ: How do we get more people involved in voting?  

KS: It’s important to build up understanding of what local government does so people can understand the relevance. 

LGAT has started doing a bit of that over the last year with our TV advertisement and our [opinion editorials] and our articles to tell the story of local councils more, which I think is important. 

We’d like to engage people through high schools and colleges down the track, really getting people involved younger so that when they turn 18 they’re ready and understand why they should take part in local government elections.

TJ: Should voting be compulsory?

KS: Our members have voted on this about five times over the last decade and it’s never been carried. Although, the last vote was a lot closer than it has been in the past. 

[The members] have not supported it for a number of reasons. They’re concerned about it not really delivering meaningful votes.

They think there might be a greater informal vote and they think the education is more important to get meaningful votes. 

They’re worried about the rise in party politics should there be a move to compulsory voting. They’re also worried about the cost of compliance.

Once you have compulsory voting you also have to pay to make sure people did vote. That will push up the cost of elections to communities because councils pay for their own election.

TJ: Voting is lower in urban areas. How can that change?

KS: That is a pattern that we see all across the world. The more urbanised a community is, the less engaged they are.

They don’t have the same visibility of their local councillors than those in regional areas do.

But with the emergence of issues like housing affordability, we are starting to see people really engage with councils and there is an opportunity to see that converted into better voting opportunities in those areas.

TJ: Should there be council amalgamations?

KS: Local government in Tasmania is not anti-reform. But we do object to simplistic models which just leap to a number of councils with no rationale. 

It’s important to think about what councils need to be able to do in the future and what councils need to be able to support that. Who knows, we might actually see councils be relied on to deliver more and more services.

We’re certainly seeing that happen already in terms of their responsibilities If you don’t have the conversation about what the community is going to look like and what the function of council is going to look like first, then you can’t really answer what the structure of local government is going to look like. 

We keep seeing the same pattern in Tasmania where people talk about the number of councils, but don’t really talk about these other things.

TJ: What is the amalgamation process?

KS: The government had it right when they went into the voluntary program.

The driving rationale behind amalgamations should be to improve service deliveries to communities to minimise their cost increase, but to maintain democracy and local voices. 

I think if you can come up with a model that delivers all those things then maybe we’re talking.

But we haven't yet seen communities fully embrace the idea of amalgamations and maybe that's because we’re not really presenting a strategic holistic model that really thinks about all those other things that I’ve talk about.

TJ: Are councillors scared to look into amalgamations because they might lose their job?

KS: I think that is not really reflective of most councillors who get into it to serve their communities.

They’re not really in it so much for themselves. 

I’d say the majority, if the model was right and delivered better outcomes for their communities, would be very supportive of amalgamations. 

There will always be some self interest, but no difference to that of other stakeholders.