A 14th West Australian council has been forced by a small group of ratepayers to consider opposing state government COVID-19 vaccination mandates, prompting frustration about the "increasing number" of local governments having to tackle the issue.
The Shire of York held a special electors' meeting this week at the behest of 160 locals who signed a petition forcing the meeting to go ahead.
Among the ratepayers' demands were a call for council to make the local community "pro-choice" in relation to COVID-19 vaccinations and for council to reject state mandates.
Councils are compelled to hold a special electors' meeting if 100 electors, or 5 per cent of the population, request one.
They have been held across the state in recent months, with Fremantle and Busselton also having held meetings with almost identical agendas.
York Shire president Denese Smythe said the motions passed at Tuesday's meeting would be considered by council, but did not necessarily reflect the views of the community.
"If people don't want to be vaccinated, that's their choice. But we have to have rules … if we all decided we weren't going to wear a seatbelt or we were going to drive on the wrong side of the road, what would happen? Rules are there for a reason," she said.
Unvaxxed 'classed as minority'
Meanwhile, in the state's south, the Shire of Bridgetown-Greenbushes has formally rejected calls from ratepayers to lobby the government to end COVID-19 vaccine mandates.
Last month it held a special electors' meeting about the issue at the request of almost 300 people, but just 20 people attended a second meeting on Wednesday night for council to debate those calls.
Councillor Amanda Rose explained to the gallery that local government had no say in vaccine mandates.
"I support the community as a whole — the community as a whole is not represented here tonight," she said.
Councillor Tracy Lansdell empathised with the small group gathered, saying the shire "should acknowledge a growing sentiment of concern and disharmony the mandates had created".
Community members had an opportunity to address council, with one saying "the general feeling in our community is that the unvaxxed are classed as a minority".
However, others used the opportunity to spread untruths and misinformation about the efficacy and safety of the vaccine.
"There is tragedy on both sides of this argument all over the world — we're not going to be able to fix that tragedy here tonight," deputy president Sean Mahoney said.
The vote to reject the electors' meeting motions was won three votes to five.
Councillors voted to refrain from endorsing advocacy positions and invited any elector to direct concerns to the state government.
Councillors' hands tied
WA Local Government Association president Karen Chappel called on the state government to allow the meetings to be stopped or transitioned online amid ongoing outbreaks across the state.
"Many of our members are concerned about the requirements to hold these meetings in the context of current caseloads of COVID-19," she said.
Ms Chappel said it was essentially a fruitless exercise, as councils had no power to act on those matters.
"Local governments, in any of their decision-making processes, cannot make decisions that are in contravention to existing laws," she said.
"Members of the community who might be concerned with state government directions or policy need to raise these issues with their local members of parliament."
A spokesman for WA's local Government Minister John Carey has ruled out intervention from the minister.
Important for democracy, unlikely to sway the state
University of WA Planning associate professor Paul Maginn said the meetings were an important outlet for people to raise their frustrations and a starting point for change, but said they were unlikely to bring about change.
"It's part of democracy in general," he said.
"I just don't think there will be enough build-up of pressure on the state government in order for the state government to change its position.
"It would seem to be, given the history of how the state government has managed the pandemic so far, committed to its position and how it's going to manage things going forward."
