The Harden Country Club will be the venue for the Public Inquiry on February 5, 9am-12pm. Those wishing to attend the meeting or speak at the meeting need to register online or by phone.
The New South Wales Government will be holding highly controlled public inquiries into the Harden, Boorowa, and Young amalgamation next month. But don’t expect to gain entry to the one at the Harden Country Club from 9:00am to 12:00pm on February 5 until you have done the following: -Register your intent to attend by calling 1300 813 020 or online at www.councilboundaryreview.nsw.gov.au/proposals/boorowa-harden-shire-and-young-shire-councils/#meetings -If you wish to make a verbal statement, you will also have to indicate your intent to do so. They will also take place at the Boorowa Ex Services Club on February 4 and at the Young Services Club on February 4.
The inquiries will be chaired by a government appointed Delegate, who will direct proceedings. The task of the Delegate is to gather information and compile a report on each proposal to be submitted to the Boundary Commission and the State Government. In the case of Harden, Boorowa, and Young, the Delegate is Amanda Chadwick, a familiar surname to followers of State Politics. For Cootamundra and Gundagai, the Delegate is John Turner. For each inquiry, the respective Shire Councils will be given 10 to 15 minutes to make their presentations. Councillors met with the Delegate on Monday January 18, where they were informed about the process to be undertaken. “We were told that to get us over the line [for Cootamundra-Harden], we need to have a massive demonstration of community support,” said Harden Shire Council Mayor, John Horton. “We need everybody there to speak as to why they are in favour of Cootamundra-Harden, if they are so. But you must register to attend and speak.” The most peculiar element of these inquiries are the times that they are being held. The inquiry at Young will take place between 3:00pm and 6:00pm, which is more convenient for those wishing to attend who have work commitments.
In the case of Boorowa and Harden, both towns that have expressed opposition to amalgamation with Young (Boorowa even stating as much in its initial submission to the Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal), the times for their inquiries are 9:00am to 12:00pm. Hardly ideal for those who have to work. Those who wish to speak at the inquiry will be required to register online at https://www.councilboundaryreview.nsw.gov.au/proposals/boorowa-harden-shire-and-young-shire-councils/ or by telephone on 1300 813 020. Written submissions can be made via the same website, or sent by mail to GPO Box 5341, Sydney NSW 2001. Registrations to speak at the inquiries and for written submissions close on January 28 and 29 respectively. By embarking upon a course of public inquiries, the State Government is following the provisions set out in Section 263 of the Local Government Act of 1993. But it also enables the government to directly oversee any community discussion on the matter of their own futures. Attempts to circumvent this have been met with government opposition.
The State Government recently failed in its attempt to prevent Botany Bay Council from holding a community poll on the proposed amalgamation with Rockdale Council. Botany Bay Council was barred from accessing the Electoral Roll by the NSW Electoral Commissioner, and the Council subsequently took the case to the NSW Supreme Court. The State Government and Botany Bay reached a settlement, and terms published on January 12 detail that the Government must now facilitate access to the Electoral Roll for the community poll to take place. What the refusal to grant Botany Bay Shire Council access to the Electoral Roll demonstrates is the will of the NSW State Government to control any forums of debate on the subject of proposed forced amalgamations. Public inquiries, although held in accordance with the provisions set out by the Local Government Act, are a directed medium through which subject matter and the time given to speakers is limited.
In the case of the upcoming inquiries, the subject is the Harden, Boorowa and Young proposal. The Cootamundra-Harden amalgamation, despite being the preferred option of both Cootamundra and Harden Shire Councils (with 85% and 90% community support respectively) in their submissions to IPART and the Office of Local Government, will be considered a “new proposal”, and thus outside of the terms of reference for the inquiry.
On the Council Boundary Commission website, the State Government legitimises the Harden, Boorowa and Young merger by stating that it is ‘supported by independent analysis and modelling by KPMG’. To date, the report by KPMG, by which the State Government is legitimising its position on local government amalgamations, has yet to be released by the State Government. It is suppressing a key piece of evidence that should be subject to examination by the community of all local councils affected by amalgamations, not just Harden, Boorowa and Young. Residents, by all means, are encouraged to make submissions to these inquiries, and everyone should endeavour to do so. But the State Government’s refusal of a proposal which had the backing of 85% of Cootamundra residents and 90% of Harden Shire residents, a significant display of community support indeed, speaks volumes about this entire process.
