Local councils are rubbish. Despite what you say the Labour Party control where it can and with the total incompetence and corruption generally experienced we would be better off without local councils.
The problem is real people do not have the time to waste on faffing around with all the meeting and talking that is imposed by the people with ulterior motives who end up being the only people who want the job.
In my area the labour Party field many canditates so they are sure of getting the votes necessary.
Sack the whole rotten lot of them and put it under State Government.

Why not get rid of state governments at the same time as local councils, and introduce a set of expanded "counties" with a centre of government in a major regional centre, for example, eastern WA could have "capital" in Kalgoolie with a lesser seat of govt in Esperance (which would also be the port). This zone could have a different time zone to Perth, with a de facto time zone already in place from SA border to somewhere near Balladonia, which is, unfortunately, 45 miutes different to Perth time since it's 1.5 hours different to Adelaide (otherwise sunset is at 4pm through winter).

Another "county" could be based around Newcastle/Hunter and lower northern rivers with another further north with Armidale/Tamworth as capital and Coffs Harbour as "port".

The current system is clearly not working well and there are many areas of duplication amongst the three tiers of government.

I wish the author was right, but, aside from the 10 -15% of thinking voters, all the other idiots just re-entrench the sacked nongs or party hacks who have been there for ages.

I was surprised at how many people respond to the quite meaningless how to votes and posters on election day. I estimate up to 40% of people turn up with no idea of who their candidates are and just stick to Labor/Liberal biases.

A poorly informed and generally apathetic electorate in compulsory voting environments (where you don't earn the right to vote) sees us in the mess we are all in.