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Coolgardie council on notice as minister threatens suspension (www.abc.net.au)
submitted 1 year ago by to c/perth@aussie.zone
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[โ€“] 2 points 1 year ago (3 children)

3 weeks to respond then its only a few weeks to the election. What is the point of this?

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  • [โ€“] [S] 2 points 1 year ago (2 children)

    I get the feeling they're trying to coordinate and clear off ongoing troublesome council issues in the lead up for a fresh start. Hannah Beazley just got some new powers for use with LGA's a month or so ago, so thats probably made it easier to take action. I haven't had time to go through a summary of those new laws yet.

    The more cynical view i have is they're beginning a very cautious campaign for council mergers. No one from the government has said that though. In fact i think it was Beazley who specifically denied this. But the Mayor of Bunbury had let it be known its on his mind with his surrounding councils, and these ongoing problems aren't a good look, so maybe theres a cautious feeling of pikitical sands shifting. I'd be mighty surprised if thats the community sentiment though.

    I've actually been trying to find online the rational the Barnett Government put to WA for the council mergers, but all i've been able to find are some vague statements about operational and cost efficiencies. The only real analysis i can find is from Greenleft, they did a pretty good article, but i know people would perceive them of having a bias, so i've been looking for other sources to bolster what they say. Government News has been another interesting source, but haven't found anything more specific than the vague statements of benefits, but surely the Barnett Government must have put out a more detailed policy

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  • [โ€“] 2 points 1 year ago (1 child)

    I'm ideologically predisposed to favour local government over state government so I'm immediately suspicious with any attempt to overrule a local council.

    I really need to sit down and go through this Coolgardie situation. My understanding of the bare bones is that the mining industry was screaming out for for more accommodation for miners. Coolgardie council responded by releasing some land for mining companies to build on and built their own "village". The building project was mismanaged and over budget and hasn't returned the revenue expected. Council tried to cover the shortfall by heavily increasing rates on miners which was overruled by the state govt. They have now been accused of doing nothing to get themselves out of this mess.

    At a glance it looks to me like an underresourced council doing its best and overeaching and when it fell apart made a hard decision to tax higher to regain financial stability. It looks a lot like Perth wants to amalgamate Coolgardie into Kalgoorlie-Boulder and this is pretext.

    But as I say, I need to be guarded with my judgement because of my ideological predisposition.

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  • [โ€“] [S] 2 points 1 year ago

    Oh wow yeah! I hadn't read about the backstory for Coolgardie.

    Theres definitely cross-over between our predispositions. Mine is to always increase democratic representation where able, and never decrease. My problem with the Barnett government's plan was there was a clear decrease in democratic representation proposed, for vague promuses of efficiencies. If its more efficient to have less councils, then ipso-facto its even more efficient to have one council. By this argument the most efficient forms of governance is surely oligarchy/dictatorship.

    Except this isn't whats borne out with those systems, and theres plenty of evidence of those systems around the world.

    Those forms of government are only, arguably, efficient for delivering on the needs of an inner-circle/primary population. So the whole efficiency argument rests on a premise that goes against the fundamental theoretical structures (Liberal Democracy) that Australia is built on.

    So without a requisite increase in democratoc representation in some other effective way, the case for council mergers is highly problematic for me.

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