City of Rockingham rejects motion to ‘come out of shadows’ & create lobbyists register

Existing rules are enough to let people know who has been lobbying the City of Rockingham, according to its council.

A special electors’ meeting in May called for the city to create a “public transparency register” to track what lobbyists and developers it had talked with.

The motion from Jarrad Krollig said it was intended to bring the council “out of the shadows”.

“We know that behind closed doors, developers and professional lobbyists are getting meetings and influencing the future of our suburbs,” his motion said. “If you have nothing to hide in these meetings, you should have no problem letting us see the guest list.”

Councils that have similar registers include the cities of South Perth, Bayswater and Kalgoorlie-Boulder.

But the council voted 7-4 at its June 23 meeting to not create a register.

Cr Peter Hudson said if the council had nothing to hide, then it should not be afraid of being transparent.

“A public register doesn’t prevent anyone from meeting with council and staff,” he said. “It doesn’t stop development, nor does it cease development.

“What it does do is allow the community who we are speaking with to influence the decisions that shape our city.

“To my mind, that’s basic accountability, and all levels of government should take notice.”

Mayor Lorna Buchan said the city embraced accountability and not many people knew the rules council members were operating under, which included disclosures of interest and a mayor’s report.

There were also questions over what defined lobbying.

“Is that emails? Is that text messages? Is that conversations in a Woolies aisle?” Ms Buchan asked.

Cr Dawn Jecks said she had been taken aback by how restrictive local government rules already were.

“Things are really tight,” she said. “We really can’t get away with brown paper bags and the other perceptions.

“It just doesn’t happen.

“I can understand the concerns (but) I remember sitting in that special electors meeting thinking I didn’t really understand what a lot of the motions were for because I thought ‘well gee, don’t these guys realise we’ve got this, this, this and this?’.

“And another one would come and I’d think ‘don’t they understand we’ve got that, that and that?’.

“It’s sad to think there was that room full of people that thought we were all corrupt and weren’t listening and all the rest of it. And I’m sorry that’s happened in our community.”

Cr Mark Jones said he worked as a town planner for another local government, and had people calling and emailing about developments “all the time”.

“All the information that city officers deal with, that councils deal with, it’s all available,” he said.

A council report said public confidence in decision-making was important but lobbying was a legitimate aspect of the democratic process and the Local Government Act had “significant” rules on transparency and accountability.

It also said there were groups other than lobbyists and developers who sought to influence council decisions.

The special electors meeting also called for a “public accountability dashboard” for questions the council takes on notice.

Questions at council meetings are usually taken on notice when an answer is not immediately available. The answers are usually recorded in the agenda of the following month’s meeting, as well as provided to the person who asked them.

But members of the public have complained they have trouble finding the answers. The dashboard was intended to make them visible “plain and simple” rather than “burying” them.

The council voted unanimously to not support this idea either.

During question time, resident Tim Pearce said it was a “chore” to read through minutes, which many would find “incomprehensible”, and suggested AI summaries be produced.

James Mummy said questions on notice were easy to find, but finding written answers made during meetings was not.

A city report said including answers in the next month’s agenda was standard across all WA local governments.

“The suggestion ... that the city might issue a private response to the person asking the question while burying the official answers within a 200-page meeting minutes document is inaccurate and unfounded,” it said.

“Taking a public question ‘on notice’ is a core element of good governance in local government because it balances the need for prompt community engagement with the requirement for accurate, well-researched, and transparent decision-making.”

City CEO Michael Parker said that if questions are submitted in time, they will be answered publicly, but sometimes research was needed.