Simpson 'Shares Blame' - But It's Everyone Else's Fault

There is something truly Pythonesque* about Tony Simpson's latest protestations. He admits that "the State Government could have handled the reform process differently" [presumably he means better] and that he "shared the blame for its failure" - but he also says it's the fault of scaremongering and self-interest from Councils.

He still doesn't get it, does he! It was a single member of the community who initiated the legal action. It was individuals and community groups who kept the pressure on throughout the so-called process. And it was community groups (albeit in one case with the active support of its Council) that brought about the binding 'NO' votes in three of the Dadour polls.

And his suggestion that he should have taken all the boundaries off the map and drawn circles around the regional centres might make sense if you were literally starting from scratch but completely ignores the reality of having to split most local governments two or three ways and then combining bits of half a dozen into one.

Even if the new state were better than the previous one, the transition costs (economic, financial and social) would be horrendous and long-lasting. Local government services would suffer for many years as all the parts were brought together and rationalised - and valued programs would be likely to disappear as they did not have 'majority ownership' in the new council(s).

* Reference to the 'Dead Bishop' sketch, in which the villain says: "All right, it's a fair cop, but society is to blame" - at which the policeman then says: "We'll be charging them, too".

Hills Gazette, 3rd March 2015. Click to enlarge