Image: A report on the de-amalgamation of the Inner West Council into Ashfield, Leichhardt and Balmain councils has been submitted to Local Government Minister Wendy Tuckerman. Photo: Inner West Council.
By ROBBIE MASON.
Concerns have amplified surrounding who exactly will fund council demergers, following reports the NSW Labor government will not foot the bill.
A Greens spokesperson for Local Government in NSW explained to City Hub that the Office of Local Government told Inner West Councillors in a briefing that the state government was exploring options to force councils pay for their own demergers.
“This would otherwise be (and should be) the responsibility of the state government to fund.”
This process would involve legislative change; specifically, removing the 2021 clause in the Local Government Act which mandates government funding for council demergers.
The decision holds particular relevance for the Inner West Council, which submitted a business case for de-amalgamation to the NSW Boundaries Commission last year. In 2021 62 percent of residents voted in support of de-amalgamating the Inner West Council and dividing it up into three separate councils.
During a NSW Labor Conference in October 2022, delegates met with the NSW Demerger Alliance (DNA) and Residents for Deamalgamation and appeared to pledge to support council demergers. At the time, a DNA spokesperson, Grantley Ingram, told City Hub that he considered the rally and interactions with Labor members a net positive result towards change.
DNA have expressed concern over the lack of communication from the office of the Minister for Local Government, Ron Hoenig, and rumours over Labor’s demerger policy, which they labelled “a huge backflip”.
The Greens spokesperson for local governance emphasised the wide-reaching impact of Labor’s decision.
“This decision impacts not only Inner West Council, but Canterbury-Bankstown, Northern Beaches, and regional councils including Snowy Valleys and Cootamunda-Gundagai,” the spokesperson continued.
“The same communities who have, through forced amalgamations, had their local democratic representation diminished and received less efficient local services, should not now also have to bear the cost of de-amalgamation. The state government should foot the bill for cleaning up their own mess.”
Linda Scott, a Labor councillor on the City of Sydney Council, expressed concern over the news, stating “local governments were forcibly merged under the Liberal Government, and communities were forced to pay the price.”
“Labor must always stand up for local governments, and I’m committed to doing this.”
Liz Atkins, a Greens councilor on the Inner West Council, said she was “shocked but not surprised” by the news.
She considered the news yet another example of the Minns government’s failure to maintain pre-election promises, although she noted that “Labor kept its policy statements about demergers relatively vague and now we know why.”
“I think it’s another example of cost-shifting onto local government. We have seen this in the emergency services levy decision recently,” Cr Atkins continued.
DNA spokesperson Grantley Ingram said he had requested an urgent meeting with the Minister for Local Government, Ron Hoenig, to clear up matters. He has still not received a reply.
“The former Coalition government’s forced amalgamation policy, which cost more than $500 million, did not deliver more democracy, efficiency or services – and this is an ongoing source of frustration and anger as rates keep rising”, Ingram said.
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