The Editor
Recently there have been suggestions that the Minister for Local Government had been considering deferring for one year, the Council elections which are due in September this year.
It also resulted in comments which indicated that a forced amalgamation of Wollongong and Shellharbour Councils could be on the horizon. However perhaps before people jump to support such an amalgamation there is a need to think about the following facts :
· There are 191 councils in NSW and Wollongong is one of the biggest six councils in terms of its population.
· Council amalgamations in Wollongong are really ancient history - ours has already taken place - back in 1947 when 3 councils merged to form the City of Greater Wollongong.
· Wollongong Council has 2 councillors elected from each of its 6 Wards of 20,000 voters, ie 12 councillors to represent 120,000 voters, whereas in smaller metropolitan councils there can be 9 councillors elected to represent a mere 20,000 voters.
It may be arguable that smaller councils of 20,000 voters or less should be amalgamated to make them more cost efficient - but this would best if such amalgamations were voluntary. Consider the Victorian Kennett government approach - councillors were sacked, with councils forcibly amalgamated and run by Kennett government appointed administrators. The community had no say at all for some years before finally being allowed by the Victorian government to elect their own leaders. Interestingly, at least one Victorian council ran a lengthy course over some months to groom the "annointed few", who were selected by the council's administration, to become potential future community leaders prior to the council elections finally being held.
One can only hope that the new Minister for Local Government, Harry Woods adopts a more democratic approach to reforming local government in NSW compared with the approaches taken south of the border.
Councillor Kerrie Christian
Ph 0408 115 099
13.5.99
Authorised - Kerrie Christian
Note - Angelfire has no responsibility for the content of this web page
Return to Kerrie's Main ACT Web Page
Thank you for visiting my page at Angelfire. Please come back and visit again!
My Favorite Web sites