Meeting the candidates: Oakleigh ward incumbent Stefanie Perri talks to other candidates during the drawing of the ballot.
The draw: Jeff Gazzard, the returning officer for the Monash election, uses a computer to determine who gets the coveted top spot on the ballot. Pictures: Rob Carew
LET'S try a quick quiz: Who's the prime minister of Australia? Can you name the premier of Victoria? What about the mayor of Monash Council? Or the councillor for the very ward in which you live? If you've answered each of those, well done. But if not: why not?
Figures from the Victorian Electoral Commission imply voters are far less engaged with councils than other levels of government. In the 2008 council elections, almost 76.5 per cent voted in postal elections. By contrast just 70 per cent turned out at the handful of attendance elections.
SEE Monash Council elections: All you need to know
In Monash, there were 119,575 registered voters at the previous election. But of these, only 94,271 people voted and 3492 did so informally. A staggering 25,304 people either declined to vote, forgot to fill out their ballot papers or were too lazy to exercise their democratic rights.
Voting is compulsory at a council election for residents on the state electoral roll. Residents aged over 70 are encouraged to vote, as are non-resident property owners, but will not be fined if they don't.
Locals who don't vote are intially given the benefit of the doubt and asked to provide an excuse, but at the previous election Monash council raked in $326,309 in fines from 6849 people who failed to give a valid reason for failing to vote. By contrast, about 92 per cent of people took part in the 2010 state election, with an informal voting rate of 4.96 per cent — half the informal vote of the council poll.
So why are people so uninterested in their local council — and willing to cop a $56 fine for not voting — when the decisions it makes are so much closer to home than those of Spring Street or Canberra?
"I think it's that local government is misunderstood," says Rob Spence, chief executive officer of the Municipal Association of Victoria. "I know there's a view that councils are a waste of time, but stand out on your front lawn and look out — everything comes from the council. The roads, the footpaths, the parks, and you can have a say in shaping that."
Councils' main responsibilities are broken down to the three Rs: roads, rubbish and - the touchiest subject of all - rates.
But their duties go much further. They, more than any other level of politics, decide what sort of development happens in your neighbourhood and what direction your suburb's future will take.
Ken Coghill, director of Monash University's governance research unit, says the importance of local government to people's day-to-day lives cannot be underestimated.
"They're in charge of everything, from safe and secure roads right through to the really important decisions about the future of the community, so it's really important councillors know they've got the full support or authority of the public.
"The lack of interest weakens democracy. If a council does something you don't like, then you've only got yourself to blame.
"If 20 or 30 per cent of voters don't vote, then that's 20 or 30 per cent who don't have their views represented."
But Mr Coghill is quick to say the responsibility is not just on residents. Councillors — and candidates — need to get out and show people what they stand for, make themselves available and encourage their interest.
"The responsibility is on the candidates to get out and about, meeting and greeting, and taking every opportunity to communicate with the people they want to vote for them. They have to have a strong bond with the community they want to represent and they should work hard to maintain the local channels in the community."
Mr Coghill says the council as an institution should "let people know what's going on and what decisions are being made" and encourage them to be involved in its processes. Any inclination to closed council meetings, or not making all its decisions transparent just weakens its authority and further discourages local engagement.
"If people know what's going on, they are much more likely to take an active interest."
But Mr Spence — who's been involved with the MAV since the late 1980s — is quick to defend councils' processes and rejects the suggestion that they prefer to operate behind closed doors. "In my view, the legislative framework of council drives transparency and openness. Most decisions have to be made in open meetings. We are an incredibly highly regulated arena."
Less regulated is the increasing party politics in council elections. Once the domain of the state and federal arenas, it's now not uncommon to have council candidates who are also members of political parties, or parties beefing up the ballot with dummy candidates. Mr Coghill, however, believes there is no problem with party politics in the council sphere. "I'm aware the Liberal and Labor parties are backing people, and I believe the Liberal Party is doing so much more than previously. It's a useful guide to voters - if they are open about it."
Mr Spence agrees, providing candidates disclose where they stand. "I'm not advocating the party structure, but it does challenge how we operate. To really politicise the structure would be a bad thing, though."
Some would argue though that the system is already politicised, particularly with the use of dummy candidates. But this is something Mr Coghill says is an inevitable outcome of the preferential voting system.
"It's worrying, but then if one person is vocal and another is running dead, I think voters are smart enough to see through that tactic.
"The really important thing is that people who are genuinely interested have to make the effort to attract voters."
The answer in the end seems clear: We get the democracy we deserve because we all - residents, voters, councillors, candidates - are responsible for creating it.
Mr Spence is not sure if the perceived apathy is a fault of councils or voters, but muses it also has much to do with media attention. "With state and federal government elections, every piece of media leads with it, you're saturated with it.
"There's nowhere near that attention in local government. It's much more low-key, which affects the turnout and interest - a lot say they don't even realise they need to vote."