Referenda conducted by a number of Tasmanian Councils earlier this year have led to a rethink on the current restructure program. With most polls resulting in between 50 and 90 percent of voters saying ‘no’ to further Council amalgamations, the Minister for Local Government, Denise Swan, has requested the Local Government Board reconsider their recommendations.
The Board will now report back to the Minister by the end of May. This reconsideration has enabled Councils to place further submissions to the Board. It has also meant that Council elections scheduled for April have been postponed to August.
Just five years since its last restructure, when Tasmanian Councils were reduced from 46 to its current 29 Councils, questions have been raised about whether further amalgamation should be the only model considered.
In her President’s Comment (see page 2), Mayor Sue Smith believes that, the proposal to further reduce Council numbers to 11, may have a hidden agenda, where the
State Government improves its level of performance by passing on additional services to Local Government without commensurate funding.
The alternative proposal, put forward by the Local Government Association of Tasmania, for performance benchmarks to be audited annually, the same as financial auditing, has to date been discounted by the State Government.
