Call for poll into future of Council

With May 12 marking six years since the merger of the former Wyong and Gosford Councils, Central Coast Friends of Democracy (CCFoD) is calling on the NSW Government to pay the $100M it says is owed to fund the real cost of the merger and conduct a poll about the future of Central Coast Council.

“On May 12, 2016, the NSW Liberal Government merged Gosford and Wyong Councils to become Central Coast Council,” CCFoD Coordinator and former Mayor, Jane Smith, said.

“Six years later, staff have been sacked, rates are rising, community assets have been sold, services have been cut and local democracy has been taken from our community.”
Smith said by October, 2020, the failures of the NSW Government merger process were clear.

“The 20 amalgamated councils around NSW faced losses of $1.03B in three years and ratepayers faced hikes in rates and cuts in services,” she said.

“Eight out of 10 of the worst performing councils in NSW were merged councils.

“In May 2021, IPART determined rate increases for seven merged councils ranging from 8 per cent to 53 per cent.

“The NSW Government must answer questions about its failed council mergers across the state.”

Smith said CCFoD is calling for: The NSW Government to pay the $100M it owes the Central Coast community and the Council to cover the true cost of its forced amalgamation; the NSW Government to hold a poll to ask the community if they want to stay as one Central Coast Council or demerge whilst maintaining some shared services; and the Parliamentary Inquiry into the 2016 mergers, as promised by NSW Labor, to proceed before the state election in March, 2023.

“In November, 2020, Greg Warren, NSW Shadow Minister for Local Government, said the Opposition, with support from the cross benches, would establish a parliamentary inquiry into the failing merger process and identify options the government must take to repair the damage done to councils and their communities,” Smith said.

“For the Central Coast, staff estimated the true cost of the merger process in the order of $100M – but the NSW Government provided only $10M for the process.

“In contrast, the State Government used the Stronger Communities Fund, intended for merged Councils, to give $90 to Hornsby Council which was not merged.

“There are questions of integrity around that decision and the Stronger Communities Fund.”

Smith said the Central Coast community has been treated with contempt.

“The Public Inquiry into Central Coast Council provided very few answers for our community and ended up being a ‘tick a box’ exercise to allow the NSW Government to remove our local democracy,”she said.

“The figure of $565M debt has been used to create a false narrative.

“Improvements were necessary but claims of budget mismanagement and deficits have been contradicted in comments from independent experts on Council’s Audit, Risk and Improvement Committee.”

Smith said communities around NSW are calling for the right to reclaim their councils.

“A poll at the 2021 Inner West Council election resulted in 62 per cent of the community wanting to de-merge,” she said.

“In 2021, Cootamundra-Gundagai Council resolved to submit a proposal for a demerger which the Boundaries Commission is currently considering.

“This follows the merger experience in Queensland where council amalgamations took place in 2008.

“Although some were considered successes, four council areas (Noosa, Douglas, Livingstone and Mareeba) were de-merged in 2014 after referendums were held.”

Smith said the Central Coast community deserves to have a say about the future of its Council.

CCFoD has established a community survey on the future of Council and a petition calling on the Premier to deliver $100M to cover amalgamation costs.

These can also be found at: www.ccfriendsofdemocracy.com.

_{Primary Source: Media release, May 11, 2022 Central Coast Friends of Democracy}