Local government expert says merger 'unsubstantiated'

Pretty Beach local government expert Dr Hal Colebatch has described the planned merger of Gosford and Wyong Councils as based on unsubstantiated claims and not in the best interests of the local community.

"There is no attempt in the Minister's proposal to show that merging Gosford with Wyong will produce revitalization or a new agenda and a fresh start," said Dr Colebatch in a submission to the delegate currently assessing the merger proposal.

"The Minister's proposal completely ignores the structural sources of financial strain in local government, and his suggestion that these will be alleviated by boundary changes is willful self-delusion."

Dr Colebatch a political scientist, specialising in public management who has been engaged in research on local government since 1969.

He is currently a Professorial Visiting Fellow in the School of Social Science at UNSW and a Visiting Professor in the Australian Centre for Local Government Excellence at UTS.

"We have had amalgamations in the past without any dramatic change in the character of local government.

"We used to have a Woy Woy Council.

"Then it was decided that in the interests of efficiency, it should merge with Erina to create Gosford.

"This has evidently not produced the desired result, so it is asserted that the merged council should merge again, with Wyong," Dr Colebatch said.

Dr Colebatch's submission to the delegate currently assessing the merger proposal highlighted that the Independent Local Government Review Panel did not even recommend the Gosford-Wyong merger.

"It said options for the Central Coast were a full amalgamation or a multipurpose joint organisation," Dr Colebatch said.

"The panel's conclusion was perfectly clear but IPART, to which the proposal was sent for further investigation, simply refused to do it.

"Instead, IPART said, 'We have approached the assessment of the Central Coast councils on the basis that a merger should be explored first'.

"IPART took it upon itself to countermand the recommendation of the independent review panel for a 'proper valuation' of options, and to substitute its own preference for amalgamation."

The delegate will make his recommendation to the Office of Local Government based on a proposal prepared by the NSW Minister for Local Government, Mr Paul Toole.

According to Dr Colebatch, the Minister's proposal rests entirely on the financial arguments for amalgamation but does not give evidence of how the benefits will happen or even if they will happen.

"The fact is that both Gosford and Wyong are financially well managed... and IPART found that they satisfied the financial management criteria for continued independent existence.

"However it asserted that they could save money by merging and sacking senior staff.

"The Minister also stated that both Gosford and Wyong would need to increase their rate revenue, but if they merged they would have less need of increases.

"But the reason that these councils will need more money in future years is that the population is growing.

"The Minister's proposal completely ignores the structural sources of financial strain in local government, and his suggestion that these will be alleviated by boundary changes is willful self-delusion.

"The Minister's proposal does not address this problem, other than to declare that rates will be frozen for four years, that is, the merged council will have even less autonomy and strategic capacity than the present councils.

"This makes his claim that the merger will 'strengthen the role and strategic capacity of the new council' nothing more than meaningless hot air: it will leave the new councils exactly where the existing ones are now," he said.

Dr Colebatch argued that service delivery is only half the story when it comes to the role of local government.

"Local government is also a focus for identity, and a vehicle for asserting that identity...and managing the environment in a way consistent with this shared identity," he said.

"None of these aspects are addressed in the minister's proposal, which just asserts that 'these communities have similar lifestyles', which is just nonsense.

"The assumption that local identity is unimportant and the state government can draw boundaries anywhere it finds convenient and define the entities thus created to be 'local' is one of the major weaknesses in this exercise."

Dr Colebatch also assessed statutory requirements the delegate has to address as part of a boundary review.

He concluded that the Minister's merger proposal failed to address any of the requirements for a boundary change set out in the Local Government Act.

"The Minister's proposal speaks warmly of the prospect of the different regulatory regime in the two council areas being 'harmonised'.

"It may well be that the benefits of standardising the rules in Gosford and Wyong outweighs the costs of change and any new inconsistencies, but the Minister's proposal does not even recognise the need to assess the balance between costs and benefits as part of the decision process."

Dr Colebatch also argued that the merger proposal did not respect democracy.

"Democracy stops when a state election puts a Minister into office, and local communities should be compulsorily corralled into whatever organizational form is currently in favour with Sydney politicians and bureaucrats," his submission said.

In the case of Gosford Council, Dr Colebatch said: "The councillors were left with the clear understanding that if they failed to vote for amalgamation, the council would be dissolved and an appointed administrator would exercise their powers, leaving them unable to represent their constituents' interests.

"This was coercion, not informed consent.

"The case for amalgamation was so unpersuasive that neither the alleged beneficiaries, nor their representatives were allowed any choice in the matter."

He said IPART had not conducted any research on the Central Coast to prove the claim the merger would save $112 million over 20 years and that was "Simply a guess by IPART".

"The Minister's proposal also assumed that elected representation would be reduced from 20 to 15, meaning that representation (residents per councillor) would be reduced by 28 per cent in Gosford and 39 per cent in Wyong.

"The document asserts endlessly the Minister's belief that a merged council will provide services that are better in every respect than the services now provided, but gives no reason for anyone else to share that belief."

The impact on micro communities within the region also failed to be addressed, he said.

"This is not addressed in the document, which does not appear to have even entertained the possibility that councils may reduce staff by closing small outstations (roads depots) rather than sacking senior staff in the head office.

"Given that the former is one of the most common ways of effecting economies of staff (closing the RTA office in Woy Woy), this is a remarkable omission.

"The document makes no reference to the opinions of the diverse communities, and it is not evident that the consultation process has brought these into consideration.

"Only one public meeting was held in Woy Woy, and it was not advertised widely."

Media release, 12 Mar 2016

Ian Bull, Wagstaffe-Killcare Community Association