July 24, 2021
Pittwater residents will persevere in the fight for a council demerger despite the NSW government ignoring resident’s wishes in two separately amalgamated council areas by refusing their proposals for demergers.
NSW Local Government Minister Shelley Hancock announced on Tuesday that the boundaries of Snowy Valleys Council and Cootamundra-Gundagai Regional Council would remain in place after their proposals for demergers had been assessed.
Mrs Hancock also announced on Tuesday an independent statutory review into the Local Government Boundaries Commission.
The review would examine the effectiveness of the membership composition, functions and processes of the commission, the minister said.
“The NSW Government will not proceed with the demerger proposals for Cootamundra-Gundagai Regional and Snowy Valleys councils,” Mrs Hancock said in a media release distributed to a limited number of outlets.
“The reports do not provide a clear consensus on the issue of demerging and do not provide me with the necessary confidence to make these important decisions.
“This provides both councils with certainty and a plan for the future.”
However, the commission itself in the case of Snowy Valleys recommended the demerger should go ahead - with three commissioners for and one dissenting.
In the case of Cootamundra Gundagai, the commission formally recommended against the demerger - after four commissioners were evenly split and the chair used their casting vote against.
Save Our Councils Coalition president Brian Halstead today said that Mrs Hancock had totally disregarded the wishes of the communities as well as ignored the Boundary Commission’s recommendation by rejecting the Tumbarumba Proposal.
It appeared that the minister’s decision had been delayed sufficiently that it would have been too late for the councils involved to seek a poll at the next local government elections - as is being carried out by the Inner West Council.
“Given that the local government elections have now been delayed [to December 4, 2021], it may be possible for merged councils to seek a poll when they are held,” he said.
“In light of the minister’s treatment of the communities’ wishes, the best answer may be the reintroduction of the Shooters, Fishers and Farmers Party demerger bill that was previously defeated in the lower house last time.
“We would call on the two Nationals (NSW Deputy Premier) John Barilaro and Steph Cooke, who have stated their support for the demergers, to cross the floor and support their communities.”
The Protect Pittwater Association issued a statement today condemning the government’s decision and its waste of public resources.
“The NSW government ignored what the community wanted when it first amalgamated councils and it continues to do so,” the group said.
“The whole process has been marked by delays and now the government has ignored its own commission. On top of that, given an answer it didn’t like, it’s decided to call a review of that body.
“This has been an enormous waste of public money and the time of community members.
“Protect Pittwater will continue collecting signatures for our proposal but the only thing that will satisfy and give communities real certainty now are binding plebiscites in every former council area that has been amalgamated.”
UTS local government specialist Joseph Drew today told Northern Beaches Radio that the amalgamations were not working and demergers were inevitable.
Associate Professor Drew, from the Institute for Public Policy at UTS, said expenditure for amalgamated councils had increased on average by 11.2 per cent and for staff by 15 per cent compared to those of their constituent councils.
That compared to estimates by the government’s advisors on the mergers, KPMG, who had said costs would go down.
Amalgamations creating larger councils had led to the need for additional staff, particularly in middle management, and harmonisations, where the highest individual levels of service from previous councils would be adopted across the whole of a merged authority.
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