DIVERSITY AND GOVERNANCE

Please click on the image to enlarge

Tasmania's Local Govt Act 1993 (Link) has a provision for a range of people who are not Australian citizens, not actually resident in a municipality, not a ratepayer, but nonetheless think of themselves as citizens –Launcestonians. Yes, they can vote and indeed stand for election in Local Govt Elections. 

This is all possible IF they are enrolled on THE GENERAL MANAGERS ROLL – and there is the rub. Bureaucratically, all kinds of stumbling blocks can be put in a person's way. The one that people often come across is that when an inquiry is made, the 'officer' they speak to, doesn't know, doesn't understand the questions be cause the person asking is doing so in their second language, or is quite simply the officer is uninformed – disinclined even. 

That is apparently so from the bureaucratic angle and the in-house protocols can be frustrating, mind numbing and less than empathetic. Expectations of 'positive regard' for anyone asking for assistance seems a bridge too far and many are put off given that there nothing 'compulsory' about being registered on the GM's Roll,

However, from the political perspective, in Launceston at least, when Council has been asked to promote the possibility of 'outsiders' being encouraged to be 'citizens of the city' the obfuscation one receives is palpable. 

Reminding a Councillor that it is unlikely that say the city's hospital could function as well as it does without 'non-citizen medicos' very often raises their ire. One is even likely to be told that if they voted they are likely to "vote for the wrong people". And then there are oversees students, and it is certain that they'll vote for undesirables, non-Christians perhaps, indeed people like themselves.

From a 'marketing perspective', there is a legion of reasons to be proactive in encouraging outsiders to think of themselves as insiders. Nevertheless, disrupting the comfort of the political cum bureaucratic status quo will always be presented as money poorly spent.