The light is dawning on non-metropolitan members of the WA Parliament that the fixes being introduced by Col Pot and sidekick Homer Simpson are symptomatic of a megalomania that would ultimately engulf country local governments as well.
So - congratulations to the Nationals for refusing to support the Government's proposed stacking and control of the Local Government Advisory Board. Now they need to see that the same dangers to country local governments arise from the whole process of forced metropolitan local government amalgamations.
The onus is in the Government to demonstrate that changes to local government are in the community interest - if they were able to do that, then the changes would get support or, at the very least, too little opposition to meet the veto requirements currently in the Local Government Act. The fact that the Government has not been able to demonstrate the value of its proposed changes (not to mention the fact that its proposed changes keep changing) suggests either the benefits are not there (as experience elsewhere would suggest) or that the Government does not believe the benefits are there and is pursuing its agenda for purely ideological reasons known only to the Premier.
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| http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-11-29/council-amalgamations/5126124?§ion=news |
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