Local Government Minister Shelley Hancock’s image may appear on more dartboards in the Snowy Valley and CGRC area after a decision regarding mergers has ended in blame games and no fruitful outcomes for those wanting to demerge.
Some may be sceptical, but it’s a smart political move by a government to announce that demergers won’t be going ahead on the same day a Covid-19 case is announced in one of the LGA’s. It’s certainly not one that residents and rate payers can’t see through. It’s happened before.
The initial forced merger announcements were made during the Christmas 2015 media blackout, meaning that the full force of what had been announced earlier, wasn’t felt until May 12 2015 when the new local government areas had been proclaimed.
It’s fair to say the government has form for it.
The NSW Government will not proceed with the demerger proposals for Snowy Valleys and Cootamundra-Gundagai Regional councils, Minister for Local Government Shelley Hancock said today.
In February of last year, Ms Hancock announced that she’d tapped the Boundaries Commission to examine the merger and a proposal to reinstate Tumut and Tumbarumba councils, alongside the Cootamundra-Gundagai de-amalgamation.
Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu was also asked to provide a financial analysis of the merged councils, and examine what may happen in the event of a demerger.
“The reports do not provide a clear consensus on the issue of demerging and do not provide me with the necessary confidence to make these important decisions,” Ms Hancock said.
Is Hancock saying that those tasked with the review were not up to the job, or is she saying that its taken 5 months to decipher the report handed to her from the Boundaries Commission in February?
She said, “This provides both councils with certainty and a plan for the future.”
Both Snowy Valleys and Cootamundra-Gundagai councils were formed in May of 2016 following forced amalgamations.
Snowy Valleys was a result of a union between Tumbarumba Shire Council and Tumut Shire Council.
The Tumbarumba and Gundagai communities have waged fierce battles to have the mergers unwound, with both towns forming groups to take up the cause.
In February this year, the Boundaries Commission announced it had completed its examination of the demerger proposals. Soon after, the government released a summarised version of the Deloitte financial reports.
There has been growing frustration in Tumbarumba and Gundagai recently about the time it was taking for the Minister to release the Boundaries Commission report.
