Save our Councils coalition

BY MIRIAM WEBBER

Sydney’s local councils and community groups are pushing forward with resistance to the NSW government’s proposed forced amalgamations.

The Save our Councils Coalition met in Mosman on Thursday 16 July to discuss the upcoming parliamentary inquiry into IPART and the approach they will be taking at upcoming public hearings.

Coalition spokesperson Cathy Griffin told City Hub that the meeting had over fifty people in attendance.

“The discussion this time was about how we’re going to plan our approach in terms of trying to get across to the parliamentary inquiry the importance of local government and the reasons why it’s completely wrong and inappropriate to amalgamate councils,” she said.

Local councils submitted responses to the Fit for the Future proposal to the Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal (IPART) for assessment at the end of June. A public hearing will commence on July 27 before IPART’s assessment of submissions will be released in October of this year.

Mosman Mayor, Peter Abelson, spoke at the meeting about the flaws in arguments supporting amalgamation.

Cathy Griffin, spokeswoman for Save Our Councils, said that submissions to IPART were an “unmitigated disaster for the government”.

Only four councils submitted proposals in support of amalgamating, and these were not for the mega-councils originally proposed in the scheme.

“Not one council of the 152 in NSW agreed with the government’s suggested proposal that they wanted them to amalgamate,” she said.

Ms Griffin said that the Save our Councils Coalition was concerned with getting proof that state government had considered local communities.

She said that the group would be focusing its attention on looking for these answers at the upcoming public hearing.

“We’re proposing to go along to the inquiry and listen and develop some questions,” she said.