‘Be honest, admit mergers will not be voluntary’

Her statement comes after a WA Local Government Association-hosted breakfast meeting recently with Local Government Minister Tony Simpson and more than 90 mayors, chief executives and councillors.

‘The question I put at the meeting was, ‘What happens if councils don’t do anything? What are you going to do?’,’ Ms MacTiernan said.

‘The response was, ‘We’ve got the legislative power to do it. We can go down that process and we will’.

‘I said, ‘That’s fine but why don’t you just acknowledge this is forced amalgamation and just get on with it, and stop beating around the bush?’

‘I’m not against any amalgamation, I just think they need to be more honest.’

Town of Cambridge Mayor Simon Withers said Mr Simpson made it clear that he would use his power to make council amalgamations happen.