AN UNPOPULAR plan to install a fourth layer of government to administer local councils in Far Western NSW remains on the agenda, despite government declaring it will pay more attention to communities’ views.
NSW Nationals leader John Barilaro seized the on the leadership change as an opportunity to declare he would “bring an end to local government mergers in the bush” and declared the Coalition agreement with the Liberal party a “blank sheet”.
“I have spent the past eight weeks visiting and, most importantly, listening to the people of regional NSW,” Mr Barilaro said in a media release which was widely interpreted to mean he opposed all mergers under the government’s Fit for the Future local government reforms.
“I have heard their clear messages, both for and against, across a range of issues impacting on their lives and I will be taking it to the Cabinet table,” he said.
It later emerged he would demand that the three pending mergers in regional NSW, impacting 12 councils, be scrapped. But the Deputy Premier will not demand his Coalition partners overturn mergers in the 20 local governments where reforms have been implemented.
Mr Barilaro said this week said he still backed another element of the Fit for the Future reforms, which government has rolled out more slowly than it did local council mergers.
The Far West Initiative is a policy to install an administrative body in the Office of Local Government to oversee Balranald, Bourke, Brewarrina, Broken Hill, Central Darling, Cobar, Walgett and Wentworth as well as remote unincorporated areas. A draft plan has been published and submissions were closed last year.
“I think it (the Far West initiative) is the start of a journey to find unique solutions for a unique area. I'm confident we can get it right, and that there is a big chance to get it right, but we have to show outcomes."
The plan states the initiative was developed to address fragmented governance, duplicated services, lack of accountability and poor socio-economic outcomes in the region. While details are scarce, it indicates responsibilities would be split between the new authority, which would handle “regional level functions” while councils take care of “local level functions”.
NSW Farmers has branded the initiative “amalgamation by stealth”. The Pastoralists Association of West Darling said, when it wrote to members, that the policy development lacked community consultation and the initiative was "deeply flawed and highly unpopular" among landholders.
NSW Farmers western division chairman Greg Rogers said the organisation had asked government “to go back to the drawing board”.
“The major issue in the Far West is a lack of services and infrastructure due to a dispersed rate base,” he said.
“Any new initiative must address these challenges before the Association could support it.
“At this point, the information provided raises more questions than it answers. Unless and until we understand the funding mechanism behind the initiative, we cannot support it.”
Country Women’s Association of NSW president Annette Turner said the organisation’s local members were opposed to the government’s plan.
"The CWA of NSW members oppose forced amalgamations, so we were happy to see the Deputy Premier indicating that this issue would be looked at. Our members are telling us this is unworkable, expensive and will not lead to better outcomes,” she said.
“There is no doubt that there are sections of the community that are feeling like they aren't being listened to.”
With ALEX DRUCE
- Correction: A previous version of this article said public submissions were open until March 31. This is incorrect. Submissions were closed on December 16 2016.