Two Labor councillors on Central Coast Council, Cr Kyle MacGregor and Cr Doug Vincent, have responded to assertions by Parliamentary Secretary for Central Coast, Adam Crouch, that councillors were responsible for the financial problems of the Council.
Crouch said in a media release on October 14 that the councillors were Council’s governing body and were responsible for these operational failings.
“The community expects councillors and Council staff to do their job, balance the books and provide services to local residents.”
Crouch said there would be no bail out for Council … and the NSW Government would not bend the rules for a Council that had fundamentally failed to do the job that the community expected.
Budgewoi Ward Councillor, Doug Vincent, said the State Government had deserted the ratepayers of the Central Coast.
Wyong Ward Councillor, Kyle McGregor, called it cheap, cynical politics.
“It is unbelievable that everyone on the Central Coast be held to ransom simply because 11 of the 15 councillors don’t come from the Liberal Party,” Cr MacGregor said.
“This is a time for politicians and government to show leadership and work together through this crisis.
“The last thing anyone should be doing in the middle of a global pandemic is threatening to shut off essential services like water, sewer and garbage collection.”
Cr McGregor said the Liberal Party has stripped over a billion dollars from the Central Coast over the term of this Council so far.
He said there was a loss of $400M in Snowy Hydro grant funding, up to $150M in forced amalgamation costs, $45M per year in cost shifting, $100M from the IPART determination over rates charges and over $175M in grants alone in the inaugural year of this Council.
Cr Vincent said the cost of amalgamation is estimated to cost between $100M and $150M and there had been lack of support from the State during natural disasters such a bushfires, floods, beachfront erosion and the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Also, we’ve had cost shifting of State responsibilities to Council such as the cost of weed harvesting and dredging The Entrance Channel, where the lakes system is actually a State Government asset,” he said.
Councillor MacGregor said: “Why? Because when people were finally able to choose representatives for themselves after Administration, 11 out of 15 councillors are Labor or Independent councillors.
“Ordinary people shouldn’t bear the burden of Liberals in Sydney or Terrigal, chucking a tantrum and throwing their toys out of the cot when we need them to step up and work collaboratively with locals, rather than perpetually punish us for the crime of not voting Liberal.
“Ratepayers and residents of the Central Coast should not be forced to personally pay for the failure of governments.
“Ego-driven, hyper-partisan political commentary seems a bit tone deaf to me, when people are worried about their livelihoods and their homes during a global pandemic and an economic crisis.
“Hornsby Council was not subject to a merger, yet recently received $90M from the State Government.
“Surely Phillip Ruddock, being the Mayor and having a Liberal political majority, and the fact that they did not merge with Parramatta, had nothing to do with the fact that they received this money from a fund that was designed to provide assistance to forcibly amalgamated councils like ours?”
Sue Murray