The dust raised by the state election had not settled by Sunday morning, when re-turned Bega MP Andrew Constance turned his sights on the Eurobodalla – and potential shire boundary changes.
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Mr Constance has been a vocal critic of Eurobodalla Shire Council, but his comments on Sunday were his most explicit to date.
Asked if a second-term Baird government had further restructuring in mind – of the scale of the partial privatisation of the state’s electrcity infrastructure – Mr Constance was quick to respond.
“Local government and planning reform,” he said.
“By the middle of this year, Eurobodalla (shire council) is expected to provide a submission back to the state government as part of our Fit for the Future reform process.
“They need to demonstrate they have talked to the community on ways to improve performance.
“Part of that might be boundary adjustments, but there are other in-itiatives we want to see the council embark on to improve its financial and overall performance.”
The Bay Post/Moruya Examiner asked Mr Constance if he was referring to the possibility of Eurobodalla Shire Council being placed under NSW government administration or becoming subject to amalgamation.
“Boundary adjustments could take that form, but I am not seeing enough evidence of the council talking to the community about this requirement yet,” Mr Constance said.
Asked if he envisaged the northern part of the shire being subsumed into Shoalhaven City Council and the southern part into Bega Valley Shire, Mr Constance stopped short of calling for forced amalgamation.
“I don’t wish to create an impression of forced amalgamation, but that is something that needs to be weighed up,” he said.
“I urge the council to start talking to the community about those types of boundary adjustments.
“Anything is possible.
“The notion that the Shoalhaven could continue to the Moruya River and it could be another council further south – there are people who don’t like the idea of large councils, but the Shoalhaven has a rate base of about 95,000 people.
“They have greater capacity to get better services and local infrastructure built.
“You only need to travel to Ulladulla to see a larger rate base gives greater flexibility to deliver more and better services.”
Mr Constance said technology allowed local governments to share the load.
“Technology should mean we should not see silly things, like individual councils running their own billing systems,” he said.
“Eurobodalla should not be running its own water and rates notice system.
“There must be better economies of scale and resource sharing across local government.”
Mr Constance said council was on a deadline.
“It is a busy three months, while the council talks to the community about its submission back to the state government in terms of reform,” he said.
“We need the overhaul.
“The frustration from the community must not be ignored.
“Across the state, local government is losing a million dollars a day.
“Financially it is unsustainable, the current structure of local government in NSW and we want change.
“The government will tackle it, but it has to happen concurrently with planning reform.”
Related coverage: Shire not earmarked for boundary change: Brown