PHILIP COCKER: Resist kneejerk response on amalgamations

Alderman Hobart City Council
Tuesday 9th August 2011

Resist knee jerk response

Alderman Philip Cocker today called on councils to resist the pressure to amalgamate and reduce councillor numbers until they had done the hard work of looking at what services they should be providing.

‘What is disappointing is the assumption that a reduction in council and councillor numbers is the first and only idea that takes centre stage as a solution to unspecified problems Alderman Cocker said.

‘There is need for a broader and substantial discussion about what councils provide now and should provide in the future. There are good arguments that councils, being the closest to the community, should be controlling and delivering more of the services currently being delivered by the State Government. It is true that that the further the layer of governance is away from the delivery, the lesser the quality of service.

‘In other countries local government looks after social, housing, medical services, transport, schools and libraries. Whilst I am not proposing all these areas should become the province of local government, we do need to have a broad look at how the delivery of services and bureaucracy is best achieved in Tasmania with its widely dispersed population.’

Alderman Cocker said, ‘The Federal Government has previously recognised that there are areas where local government is best placed to deliver some services and it has changed its funding model to bypass the State bureaucracies to do that.’

‘The challenge is for councils to examine themselves in terms of who is best positioned to deliver quality services for the least cost. In many cases this can be properly resourced local government, operating closest to the community.

‘I urge all Tasmanian councillors to engage with their communities to think about what the best structure is for their community for the next 20 years and not adopt a knee jerk response to negative short- sighted populist calls to reduce numbers and or amalgamate.’
Alderman Philip Cocker Hobart City Council