Forced Amalgamation: How Big is the Threat?

Tuesday, November 30, 2010

This was the title of a breakfast meeting that CEO Peter Bentley and Cr's Stephens, Crosby and I attended in Perth last week.

Lawyers from the company, Kott Gunning gave the presentation. Before joining Kott Gunning, Anne Wood, one of the presenters, was the Policy Advisor for a number of local government Ministers.

The analysis was based on some of the 25 recommendations in the Local Government Advisory Board. The recommendations dealing with legislative change to the 'forced amalgamation provisions' are the ones that were analysed.

These recommendations deal with changing legislation ie. The Local Government Act 1995, to empower the Minister to to target those Local Governments which either did not want to amalgamate, eg. Kent, Narrogin, Bassendean or, those that did, but couldn't find partners - eg. Katanning, Bunbury.

It appears at first glance, that the Local Government Advisory Board consists of 5 members, with only two being nominated by the Minister..  However, the other three people are still chosen by the Minister, from a list submitted by WALGA (WA Local Govt Association which represents councillors) or LGMA (Local Govt Managers Association which represents Senior Staff).
So, in essence, they are handpicked by the Minister.

Rather than go through all the horribly boring details of the Act and it's meaning for us, suffice to say,
WALGA are fighting on behalf of local governments against the changes the Minister wants to make to the Act.