BY LUCAS BAIRD
Leichhardt Council has filed a freedom of information request concerning the unreleased KPMG report on amalgamations.
In an extraordinary council meeting on amalgamations last Monday, the council resolved to file the request unanimously as the document was crucial to the State’s decision to start combining councils.
Greens councillor, Rochelle Porteous, slammed the government’s timing and decision making on the issue as “deceitful.”
“The fact that they are not even releasing the full KPMG report is just dishonest, there is no other way to explain it,” Cr Porteous told City Hub.
“It is extraordinary the lengths they are going to, to try and stop people from understanding the issue, from allowing them to properly engage and be properly consulted.”
Cr Porteous was also critical of the timing of the amalgamations.
“They are deliberately trying to push through these amalgamations while people are still on holidays,” she said.
“It is a terrible time to engage people on such an important issue and that has been deliberately chosen by the Baird government.”
“They do not want people aware of what is going on and they don’t want the response you would have at another time of year when people can properly engage,” she said.
But the Leichhardt council have made it clear they will stop at nothing to educate their residents on the issue.
Labor Councillor, Frank Breen, told City Hub that a public awareness campaign has started, with the council planning on releasing brochures and conducting a phone poll on amalgamations.
“The brochure essentially explains that residents have only one opportunity to make representations about the amalgamations,” Cr Breen said.
“We have put on the brochure the ten things in the local government act that need to be addressed by the delegate in considering the amalgamation proposal.”
“One of them is the financial considerations and there are about nine others relevant to Leichhardt,” he said
Cr Breen noted the importance of the phone poll, indicating that the views of the residents would be critical to the delegate’s decision.
“One of the criteria that is taken into account by the delegate when considering to go ahead with amalgamations is the views of the residents,” he said.
Leichhardt had previously held a phone poll on the topic around six months ago.
A spokesperson for the council told City Hub that the the response rate was around 60 per cent and in favour Leichhardt council standing on its own.
Cr Breen claimed that despite previous polling, it was important to get up to date information now that information surrounding the amalgamations had “firmed up.”
“Although we have done opinion polls in the past, we thought it was timely to do another one to show the up to date situation regarding the views of residents,” he said.
“We want to get the views of the resident and not just a yes or no answer, but more background on what their particular concerns are.”
