Casting Vote For Council Chairs And Mayors Reinstated

The government is proposing to allow local authorities to give the power of a casting vote to a mayor or person presiding at a local authority meeting, Local Government Minister Chris Carter announced today.

"This decision follows deliberations by the Local Government and Environment Select Committee on the Local Government Law Reform Bill (No 3) currently passing through Parliament," Mr Carter said.

"After hearing submissions on the Bill, the select committee decided that limited discretion should be provided to use a casting vote at local authority meetings in certain circumstances. This followed an earlier decision not to include the casting vote in the Local Government Act 2002.

"After considering the committee's latest recommendation, the government has decided that local authorities should have the discretion to provide in their own standing orders for a casting vote in any circumstances where there is an equality of votes," Mr Carter said.

"In making this decision, we have listened to the concerns of local government and the need for decisions to be made by councils within reasonable time and cost limits," Mr Carter said.

The change will be added to the Local Government Law Reform Bill through a supplementary order paper.

ENDS

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Gordon Campbell: On the Sony cyber attack

Given the layers of meta-irony involved, the saga of the Sony cyber attack seemed at the outset more like a snarky European art film than a popcorn entry at the multiplex.

Yet now with (a) President Barack Obama weighing in on the side of artistic freedom and calling for the US to make a ‘proportionate response’quickly followed by (b) North Korea’s entire Internet service going down, and with both these events being followed by (c) Sony deciding to backtrack and release The Interview film that had made it a target for the dastardly North Koreans in the first place, then ay caramba…the whole world will now be watching how this affair pans out. More>>