Cassowary Coast Regional Council

The forced amalgamations of councils throughout Queensland last year were not welcomed by many people. They occurred against a back-drop of the ‘Size, Shape and Sustainability’ process within local governments, which was seen by the state government as not progressing satisfactorily.

My view, stated at the time the amalgamations were announced in 2007, was that the specific merge of the Johnstone and Cardwell shires was of concern, because of their financial disparity.

However I am, and always have been, in favour generally of there being amalgamations. They acknowledge the increased size of communities of interest, brought about by better transport and communications and they provide opportunities for economies of scale to be realised. Put simply, the local government boundaries set in the ‘horse and buggy days’ are not necessarily appropriate when we have sealed roads ,100 kph highways and the internet etc..

Like it or not, the decision to amalgamate has been made and the vast majority of people, including councillors and staff, have set about making the new system work.

We have achieved a great deal in the first twelve months, and the next year or two will see the process substantially completed.

The costs of the amalgamations across Queensland have been high and involve numerous changes with systems, staff retrenchments and new appointments etc. The effort is enormous, and is still a job-in-progress.

The state government has underwritten some of these costs and has allocated some money to pay for additional expenses, after allowing for savings achieved.

This whole process is well underway and along comes a state election.

The Labor government wants to progress this modernisation with a rewrite of the Local Government Act.

The LNP opposition is also supportive of modernisation, but is concerned with the process used to force change. They want a process to review the past decisions and perhaps reverse them, if there is community support for such a move.

My belief is that overriding the existing amalgamations at this time would be wrong for several reasons:

1. The costs, including the emotional investment in the change process to date, are substantial and there has been no time to gain the benefits;
2. The fundamental success, or otherwise, of larger councils has not been established.
3. The time to assess the decisions previously made is not now, but say 5 years hence.
4. The costs to reverse the whole process would be a huge burden on our communities.
5. The methodology previously proposed (a petition) to activate a reversal, could be open to abuse.

Both major parties hopefully believe in consultation with communities before unilaterally making changes; thinking through consequences and recognising that two wrongs don’t make a right.

Let’s make sure they do so in this current de-amalgamation debate.