Sunday – 23RD October 2011
Alderman Matt Stevenson, a strong local government amalgamation advocate, said today that he
hopes that after the close of the Local Government polls on Tuesday that the Local Government
sector can move forward with some sensible debate around bringing councils together.
Some people have genuine concerns with amalgamation, but unfortunately there is a lot of selfinterest
too.
I hope that after the election we can move past some of this self-interest and simply get on with
debating the facts.
29 councils around the state is far too many – 290 odd councillors is far too many.
I get sick and tired of hearing that if you amalgamate you’ll lose representation.
I don’t hear too many people complaining about a lack of representation in state or federal
parliament in Denison where you only have 5 state members and one only federal member.
In the same area you have 24 local government representatives.
That is just plain ridiculous.
Councils are more than roads and rubbish, but unless we do those basic things really well we are
simply not doing our job.
Amalgamation if done properly gives the opportunity to ensure we lower costs or improve services.
Both Hobart and Glenorchy raised rates by nearly 8 per cent this year.
That might make for sustainable council balance sheets; but it doesn’t make for a sustainable
household or small business budgets for rate payers.
Alderman Matt Stevenson, Glenorchy City Council
