NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian will reverse council mergers in the bush that are before the courts but leave proposed city mergers as they are. For the townships of Harden, Boorowa and Young, the undemocratic and forced merger into Hilltops Council looks set to continue for now.
Advisory members may be relieved of their positions in June, however, this is at the discretion of Administrator Tuckerman. Tuckerman has continued to go outside of the job description of an Administrator, by continuing to build her profile by utilising sections of the local media whilst gardens in Harden’s main Street die and day to day running of Council suffers.
Her ability to self promote is in stark contrast to the advisory members on the Local Representation Committees, who have mostly remained silent and hidden. Their ability to be reelected at the upcoming election is in doubt due to their lack of recent public profile whilst Tuckerman continues to grow hers at every opportunity.
The longer they stay in their roles the more ratepayers money is spent remunerating them for their roles which are non voting and regarded as a waste of both money and time by many in the community. One local advisory member has stated that they may give their money to charity.
The merger announcement today stops short of a plan pushed by Deputy Premier John Barilaro to unpick more council mergers in the bush, including in his seat of Monaro. He will come under intense pressure from amalgamation groups who are now planning a coordinated attack to have him removed at the next State election in 2019. Simply, he and the National party have failed to represent their constituents.
Member for Cootamundra, Katrina Hodgkinson is also in the groups sights after her lack of assistance in preventing Shires in her electorate from being merged. A career politician, Hodgkinson looks to be irrelevant and without friends within the National Party after being removed from her role as Parliamentary Secretary and not given a cabinet position in the latest reshuffle. Known for handing out plenty of novelty cheques and welcoming Government announcements, she seems to be losing favour with voters who want representation and not token gestures.
Today’s decision also means Ms Berejiklian will not unpick a merger of North Sydney and Willoughby in a bid to help her prospects in the upcoming North Shore by-election. This could spell the beginning of the end for the Coalition if the seat is lost.
The announcement will only anger opponents of forced mergers who will now take aim at the North Shore by election to vent their frustrations and cause another ‘Orange’ where the National Party were unseeded after 76 years in power by just 50 votes.
With computer systems and bank accounts still separate in the 3 former local Shire areas, now would have been an opportune time for the Government to remove the unpopular policy and restore Harden, Boorowa and Young Shires to their previous positions
Limited or no representation is a clear possibility for the former areas of Boorowa and Harden after the proposed September Council election.
The Labor Party have pledged to undo any forced mergers in 2019 if elected via community plebiscites. Their stocks have just risen.
