Primrose “Phase Two Of Forced Council Mergers Still To Come”

The NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal  handed down its decision in December in Primrose v NSW Department of Premier and Cabinet, with swathes of the decision rendered “not for publication”. The NSW Government chose to give much of its evidence in secret as it sought to continue to conceal its $400,000 KPMG report on forced council mergers.

The Shadow Minister for Local Government, Peter Primrose MLC has been pursuing the KPMG documents which the then Baird-Grant and now Berejiklian-Barilaro Government said underpinned their policy of forced council mergers. The NSW Liberal-Nationals Government again used public money to hide its secret report on forced council mergers from public scrutiny.

This is despite Premier Berejiklian and Deputy Premier Barilaro repeatedly claiming – as they did before the last election – that “forced council mergers are no longer on our agenda”. The decision can be found here:

www.caselaw.nsw.gov.au/decision/5a307fc2e4b074a7c6e1afbf

Shadow Minister for Local Government Peter Primrose said, “If the NSW Liberal-Nationals are really no longer pursuing forced council mergers, why are they still going to these extraordinary lengths to keep their $400,000 KPMG report a secret?

”The only conclusion to draw is that the NSW Liberal-Nationals Government are not finished with forced council mergers, and those documents show that there is a Phase 2 of forced mergers still to come. “I would like to thank my colleague, Adam Searle MLC, for the work he has done in trying to bring transparency and accountability to the Berejiklian-Barilaro Government.”