The State Government will not be forcing any council amalgamations.
Its election platform was announced on February 21 by the since-appointed Minister for Local Government, Tony Simpson, that ‘the Liberal Party does not support forced amalgamations’, and confirmed in Colin Barnett’s Summer Newsletter in which he stated it was simply not true that the State Government would use its powers to force council amalgamations.
Rather than waste more years on coercion rather than persuasion, we need the Regional Subsidiaries Bill reforms fast-tracked by the State Government so we can create a joint venture vehicle by which our western suburbs councils can retain their local democracies and get the benefits of regional shared services and co-ordination.
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