The Blame Game Begins

I suppose we should not be surprised that Local Government Minister (for now) Tony Simpson seeks to blame Councils for the failure of his ill-thought-out, poorly-explained and never-justified council amalgamation fiasco, but he is way off the mark when he argues that he didn't ask councils to spend money on the process. 

When he does become specific, he only mentions money spent on opposition -which wouldn't have been necessary if his proposals and process had been more reasonable and democratic.

But most of the costs councils are saying the state government should reimburse them was spent on constructive work towards amalgamations that most thought were inevitable. These costs were a direct result of Simpson's intransigence and the failure of the process was largely due to community (not just Council) opposition to his deceitful and anti-democratic actions.

Tony Simpson maintains the fiction that he didn't force councils to spend money on reform and adds that 'they didn't consult'. Talk about pot calling kettle black.

The fact is that Simpson gave Councils no option but to put in proposals largely similar to his own - and they did so under duress resulting from that threat. Yes, many could have consulted better, but Simpson's announced timeline didn't give a whole lot of time to do so. And where Councils called polls (as Vincent did) he showed no inclination to be influenced by the results.

There never was any justification for the amalgamations pushed by Barnett and Simpson. In fact, they flew in the face of evidence and experience from just about everywhere else. I recall at one stage Simpson's saying, almost proudly, that he had no business case (he still doesn't) and that the Local Government Advisory Board would "assess costs and benefits AFTER the decisions were made". How's that for back-to-front policy!

Councils who spent money in good faith on behalf of their ratepayers should not be held liable for the failure of Simpson and Barnett to explain what they were trying to achieve, what it would cost and what the benefits would be.  

Kalamunda Reporter, 24th February. Click to enlarge