Enrolment a vital first step: Evans

Business people wanting to have their say in the upcoming City of Perth elections have less than three weeks to enrol, with registrations closing on Friday March 18.

The registration form, which generated criticism at the WA Business News roundtable lunch, is adapted from the original forms used to register individuals.

City of Perth electoral co-ordinator Dr Ken Evans said a body corporate could nominate two people onto the electoral role, regardless of how much property was owned or occupied by the business.

“The forms are not that complicated, they just need to be filled out correctly,” Dr Evans said. “It is impossible to say how many businesses could be on the electoral role but, yes, certainly there could be more.

“Non residential owners are not removed every two years, and occupiers stay on the role for two elections.

“The idea of taking occupiers off the roll after two years is that occupiers are a bit more ephemeral – a lot of the businesses come and go, particularly the smaller ones.

“We write to all occupiers who are about to come off the roll and send them a partially completed form, and so many come back as not at that address any more.

“We believe it is a reasonably valid way to keep the roll up to date.”

Despite claims the forms were difficult to complete Dr Evans said that, like anything worth something, it required a little effort and couldn’t just be given away.

“The city certainly makes a special effort to get business on the roll.”