Rochelle ravages secret amalgamation Toole
Image: Clr Rochelle Porteous. Photo: Supplied
BY ALEXANDER LEWIS
Leichhardt Mayor Rochelle Porteous has slammed Local Government Minister Paul Toole for reportedly proposing to sack all NSW councils in an effort to expedite amalgamations.
Mr Toole’s supposed proposal to cabinet, as reported by News Corp, would put administrators in charge of councils across the state until mega councils were elected.
“If this is true, it is government at its worst,” Clr Porteous told City Hub.
While a spokesperson for Mr Toole said the government had “no such plan”, Clr Porteous said the Minister for Local Government needed to completely deny mass sackings of mayors and councillors.
“Anything less than complete denial and it will be clear that cabinet has given up on local communities and is letting developers and the NSW Business Council dictate the future for Sydney,” she said.
Leichhardt Council, whose principal amalgamation position is to stand alone, is due to give evidence to NSW Parliamentary Inquiry into Local Government on Monday.
But some Leichhardt councillors, including Independent John Stamolis and the mayor herself, said the council’s last-minute inclusion of a “plan B” to merge with Canada Bay and Ashfield in their IPART submission had undermined their case to stand alone.
Clr Stamolis said he didn’t agree with the council’s amalgamation proposal.
“I don’t like the fact that we have a preferred merger option. It doesn’t represent the position of our community and it’s not based on any analysis whatever,” Mr Stamolis said.
“It had never been raised by Council to the community.”
“I’d love to see that withdrawn from the submission.”
Leichhardt’s proposed merger was added to its submission just weeks before it was due on June 30.
There had between no discussions between Leichhardt and the councils with which it nominated to merge.
Mr Stamolis has accused “a coalition of Labor and Liberal councillors” in Leichhardt of gerrymandering by nominating local government areas that he claims have equal proportions of Labor and Liberal voters.
“This was a completely, 100 per cent political decision. It had nothing to do with the community. How do you get Labor and Liberal to agree on something?” he said.
“They agree on nothing except political advantage.”
Clr Porteous will host a ‘Save Leichhardt Council’ public meeting this
Thursday 20 August from 6.30pm to 8pm in the Balmain Town Hall Meeting Room at the request of a number of local residents keen to oppose forced council mergers.
“The community has spoken, not just here in Leichhardt, but across NSW,” she said.
“Overwhelmingly all the communities are saying the same thing.”
