Why the community is losing in amalgamation debate

COMMENT:
THOMAS KLIKAUER

Randwick Liberal Councillor Brendan Roberts claimed last month that Botany Council had its head in the sand on the subject of council mergers.

Councillors are meant to represent their respective local communities. While other councils in the Inner-West have been fighting plans to amalgamate their councils, in the East, some Liberal councils have welcomed amalgamation plans with open arms. Others, such as Woollahra, have not.

Part of the whole idea of annihilating councils is to cement Liberal rule.

Some local Liberal Councillors have seen this as a way of carrying out the work of those higher up in state parliament.

Nietzsche described this behaviour as cementing the ‘will to power’. It is the notion that the main driving force in humans is the desire to achieve the highest possible post in life.

Despite the mudslinging, it is important to remember that Randwick Council is actually “fit for the future”.

It can remain a free standing council serving its local community. And by the way, it is not only Botany Council but also Woollahra Council’s Liberal Toni Zeltzer who refuses to be “solicited into playing the victim’s part” in the drama of local council annihilation.

But Liberals such as Toni Zeltzer are by far not the only ones fighting against the proposed eradication of their council. Other Liberals seem to have other fights with the state government. Take, for example, Bruce Notley-Smith, who in 2013 previously condemned the state government’s 2013 Urban Activation Precinct for Randwick, and planning power was given back to the local council.

It appears as if Liberals fighting other Liberals is becoming a continual drama. And it also seems as if the local communities of Woollahra, Randwick, and Botany come second to fights between local and state Liberals. What a sorrowful display.

But this display will hit us hard. It will hit voters more than politicians, who are set to cash in big time when the new mayor receives $140,000 and committee members $80,000 per year. Perhaps the sociologist Max Weber was correct when speculating a century ago that politicians will become “well-paid professionals”. We seem to get the best politicians money can buy. But Weber also saw increased bureaucratisation on the horizon. He called this the “Iron Law” of bureaucracy. Bigger governmental departments demand bigger bureaucracies. On both accounts Weber was right. With sociological precision, he predicted our future.

And quite equally, the destruction of Randwick Council will also fulfill the forecast of another sociologist as the “Michelsian Dilemma” will also come our way. This means that a ruling elite will establish itself. But the ruling elite will also distance itself from members, the local population, and from voters. The going maxim of the ruling elite is “self-preservation” – not the interest of voters. All in all, the council merger fulfils a Liberal Party dream: more money for politicians and less democracy for us.

Thomas Klikauer is a Coogee resident.