The state government’s push to dump voluntary reform within the local government sector has come under fire from the opposition, the Nationals and the sector’s peak body.
The state government’s push to dump voluntary reform within the local government sector has come under fire from the opposition, the Nationals and the sector’s peak body.
The reform push is already under pressure from within the Liberal Party after the party’s State Council voted in favour of a motion calling for the merger of southwest shires to be scrapped.
Local Government Minister John Castrilli tabled the Local Government Reform Steering Committee report in parliament last week.
The committee's recommendations included targeted government intervention on major boundary adjustments and introducing legislation to trigger reform.
“As a blueprint for fewer, stronger local governments in WA, the report provides an objective assessment of the status of the state’s local government bodies,” Mr Castrilli said.
“Without major change, major capacity issues remain, resulting in lost opportunity for the state and communities,” he said.
But the opposition’s local government spokesman Paul Papalia said the report gave Mr Castrilli the loaded gun he wanted to hold to the heads of local councils around the state.
“The Local Government Reform Steering Committee was stacked by the minister to get the answers he wanted,” said Mr Papalia.
“The Barnett government’s structural change process has been rejected by the majority of council’s around the state and as a result the minister’s committee has recommended he pass legislation to force amalgamations even where local communities had rejected the proposal.
“The people residing in smaller shires near Geraldton, Narrogin, Northam, Katanning, Bunbury and Mandurah have rejected forced amalgamations,” he said.
Nationals Member for the Agricultural Region Max Trenorden said he was concerned about the moving goal posts in the debate.
He said the report contained a “host of recommendations to assist him (Mr Castrilli) in furthering his quest to force local government amalgamations”.
“Minister Castrilli’s clear move to force amalgamations ignores the fact that if poorly suited councils are forced to join, the result will be just as disastrous as the current model,” said Mr Trenorden.
Mr Trenorden said it was worth noting that a number of the key recommendations in the report were reached only by a simple majority, which suggested dissention in the committee.
The WA Local Government Association president Troy Pickard described the report as mostly positive, but also expressed concerns about the move towards forced mergers.
He said voluntary reform was the only way to ensure the community buy into changes and that the changes were sustainable.
“Ultimately the objective of reform has to be to deliver a sector that is better placed to meet the requirements of the community in the longer term and this report goes a long way toward that,” mayor Pickard said.
