The glaring hole in council divisions that can't be ignored

Divisions do a good job of putting the "local” in local government, but when it comes to voting on the region's representatives does it deliver for everyone?

Under divisions, all it takes is 4 per cent of the region's support to elect someone. Is this enough? Picture: The Gympie Times

IF YOU'RE going to make an important decision, it's generally good to talk about it a bit first

There is, of course, no rule that says this. But that's how we wind up with stories about people who do things like tattooing their butt cheeks on their face.

For those looking to avoid this (and explaining to your grandkids why grandpa now looks the same coming and going), a closer look never hurts.

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Take council divisions. There have been a few interesting points raised so far. A big one is the desire to keep councils as local as possible.

It has merit; who wants to elect the political version of Stephen King's Pennywise? A faceless thing you've never met that rocks up to a party with a grin only to rip your arm off later? But there's a flip side here.

No-one wants to run the risk of electing this guy. Picture: Contributed

Let's take a candidate. We'll call him Albus. Albus is running for one of 10 seats in a 50,000 strong electorate.

Unfortunately 45,000 of them think Albus is a jackass.

But in a fun quirk of divisions, none of that matters, because all he needs is 2251 people to think he's better than sliced bread to take the seat.

Is 4 per cent of the region's support enough to grab a seat? The answer may be yes, but only you can answer that.

Sure, it's an extreme. But it was ignoring the extremes that got the Titanic sunk, Trump elected, and let the Donner Party decide there was no harm in taking a shortcut.