What does everyone think of the mergers of the local councils in QLD? Is it going to affect Labor's chances in the federal election? Will the sacked mayors be able to stir up enough anti-labor sentiment, or will the public see through it all? Will people be afraid of losing services?

I personally think it's a good idea to reduce the burden of local government on the community. But we should have had a referendum on it, or at least more public debate. It could have been done one region at a time.

Why?

http://www.smh.com.au/news/breaking-news/chamber-agrees-sydneys-overgoverned/2007/08/03/1185648142263.html

The Sydney Chamber of Commerce has backed calls for a major rationalisation of the city's municipal governance, saying the existing "clumsy arrangement" was stifling development.

"Sydney is spectacularly overgoverned with 43 local government areas and over 400 local government politicians," Chamber executive director Patricia Forsythe said.

Wanting to get rid of state governments is not reason not to rationalise local government. If anything it would make it more important.

Business, Liberals, should support Beattie’s rationalisation

http://blogs.theaustralian.news.com.au/letters/index.php/theaustralian/comments/business_liberals_should_support_beatties_rationalisation/

NOW is the time for the business community and dinkum Liberals to get off their backsides and support the Beattie Government's rationalisation of the delivery of local government services in Queensland.

It is patently obvious that the former system was highly inefficient, open to potential corruption and, outside the south-east of the state, was a breeding ground for National Party career hopefuls.

It would be prudent to remind all Australians that one shouldn't become "constitutionally confused" by John Howard's recent assault on federalism - local governments exist by virtue of state legislation. Voters had the chance in the 1990s to recognise local government in the Constitution, but the referendum was rejected. I seem to recall that the Coalition parties were opposed to the idea.

Sprintcyclist wrote on Aug 9^th, 2007 at 8:27pm:


Uh, try minus 9 or minus 10.

mantra - what did kennett do there ?

Overall, beatties idea has some merit. The way he did it was very dictatorial.
Surely he can't be that ignorant of how people outback feel ?
if I was living there I'ld change to a liberal voter for all elections for about 2 decades after that.

aaahhh I vaguely recall that. I'm in QLd, so the only news we get is generally QLD, based.
Had not used the net for news till recently.

Was Vic. in serious economic trouble then too ? Did kennett drag it back from the abyss ?
I'm really not sure when that was the case, think it was around then .

I think he slashed the govt workforce too, cut costs dramatically

Hi progs,
i was just discussing what happened. Are you aware of the circumstances there then ?

I have not paid that close an attention to beatties plan. Thought remore councils were being amalgamated, they are complaining as well.
I object not to beatties plan, but to his methodology.

Seems those effected are not too pleased about it


"Not one vote for forced Rosanne Barrett
August 16, 2007 12:00am

RESIDENTS of Warroo Shire in southwest Queensland have voted overwhelmingly against amalgamation in an informal poll that almost got the council sacked.

Mayor Donna Stewart said half the 700 residents had responded to the survey, with not a single vote in favour of the merger with Roma, Bungil, Bendemere and Booringa.
Have your say in our on-line pollLocal Government Minister Andrew Fraser last week threatened to dismiss the council if it proceeded with the voluntary postal survey, but later retreated from the threat, saying the poll did not constitute a formal vote.

Meanwhile, it emerged yesterday that sitting mayors may be pitted against each other if councils are sacked for holding formal referendums.

In a move that could fuel animosities between regional leaders, Mr Fraser would not rule out the possibility of appointing mayors from opposing councils to oversee another council in the event of a sacking.

About a dozen councils face the threat of dismissal over their plans to hold referendums on forced council mergers.

The State Government last month announced plans to merge 156 councils into 72."

http://www.news.com.au/couriermail/story/0,23739,22250876-952,00.html

Bligh Government tramples community rights to impose over-development

http://candobetter.org/node/575

At the elections of 15 March pro-developer councils were trounced in Redland City and on the Sunshine Coast, but this popular rejection of over-development means little to the State Labor Government of Anna Bligh and the property developers she serves.

On Thursday 5 June the Bligh Government announced its intention to push aside objections from the Redland and Sunshine Coast Councils in order to fast track developments in 17 South East Queensland sites purportedly to “improve housing affordability”. Of course, the obvious measure of selling land directly to the public in order to spare them the cost of extravagant developers' margins, as suggested by at least one correspondent to the Courier Mail recently, has not been taken up.

On 9 June Anna Bligh announced further measures to clear impediments to housing development in South East Queensland. The Courier Mail article Green Space Land Grab reported:

    The Bligh Government is set to take the brakes off urban sprawl by making it easier for developers to build on South East Queensland's precious open green space.

    Just three years after the Beattie government put protections in place to control rampant development in the region, a review of those controls is now flagging big changes.

    Among them is a proposed expansion of the so-called “urban footprint” in a move that would allow new housing and commercial developments to sprawl beyond the existing boundaries.

Against previous undertakings to allow local communities plenty of chances to have their say on future planning, it was announced that discussion of the expansion of SEQ's urban footprint into surrounding green spaces would be kept secret until the release of a draft plan in December, supposedly because this knowledge is “commercially sensitive”.

The office of Urban Management, which was set up with the stated goal of keeping rampant development in check, has been abolished. (The link to www.oum.qld.gov.au returned with the Google search term "Office of Urban Management" is now redirected to www.dip.qld.gov.au/seq.)

This accelerated development is proceeding well ahead of infrastructure upgrades necessary to accommodate the extra population. Earlier on 5 June it was reported in the Bayside Bulletin story Transport projects “too far away” that Redland City Council had raised concerns over the long wait for public transport and road upgrades which could be 10 to 20 years away. On 2 June the Bayside Bulletin story Call to upgrade roads reported growing traffic congestion in the Redlands area and increasingly long travel times along the major routes to Brisbane.

On 5 June, on hearing of the new state Government mandated developments in the Redlands area, a local taxi driver in a post to the Bayside Bulletin wrote:

    Our state government has learnt absolutely nothing about infrastructure being in place before known growth - pushing for SE Thornlands development 11 years before an upgrade of the Cleveland-Redland Bay Road in 2019 is absolute stupidity. Redlands voters will have much to remember, none of it good, at the next state election.

Sunshine Coast Mayor Bob Abbot said it was “madness” to turn big areas of land into housing estates when proper transport links had not been established.

The expansion of the urban footprint was made in spite of assurances only two years ago that there was already enough land within the existing urban footprint to acommodate growth.

Bligh claimed that the fast tracking of the review was prompted by the new population forecasts showing that the region was likely to be home to an extra 1.5 million people within 18 years.

The ‘new population forecasts’ undoubtedly were the direct result of Federal Immigration Minister Chris Evans' announcement on 14 May of a massive increase of the annual immigration to 300,000. Both the Queensland Government and the pro-population-growth Courier Mail have been curiously silent on the increased immigration rates. As one example, for a whole week following from Friday 16 May, when a single opinion piece in favour of Pacific Island guest workers was published, there was a news blackout in the Courier Mail as its pages were full of stories about the chaos caused by existing population growth. This was in marked contrast to the reporting in The Australian (the national newspaper) which, like the Courier Mail, is owned by US citizen Rupert Murdoch. All along The Australian has stridently pushed the pro-immigration barrow.

It's as if both the Queensland Government and the Courier Mail don't want the Queensland public to draw the link between high international immigration into Australia and the resultant inter-state immigration which Bligh insists makes her trampling over the rights of Queensland communities necessary.