{"id":203714,"date":"2018-03-12T12:53:01","date_gmt":"2018-03-12T02:53:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/?p=203714"},"modified":"2020-06-29T12:27:38","modified_gmt":"2020-06-29T02:27:38","slug":"perrett-says-council-mergers-have-failed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/2018\/03\/12\/perrett-says-council-mergers-have-failed\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Council Mergers Have Failed’"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Member for Gympie
Tony Perrett<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

March 12, 2018<\/strong><\/p>\n

Member for Gympie Tony Perrett believes Council amalgamations, which were supposed to produce many benefits for ratepayers, have failed to deliver any value.<\/p>\n

Speaking on the 10th anniversary of the controversial 2008 council mergers, the former Kilkivan Shire councillor and Gympie Regional Council Deputy Mayor said in hindsight, the mergers were really a State Government cost-shifting exercise.<\/p>\n

Mr Perrett said after the mergers had been forced through, the Bligh Government withdrew State Government support for infrastructure, forcing the costs onto ordinary ratepayers.<\/p>\n

This was the main reason average rate rises for the Gympie Regional Council were 7.1 per cent between 2008 and 2015, effectively doubling rates from pre-amalgamation times.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Mr Perrett told media the mergers were a great disappointment that had failed to deliver the promised outcomes.<\/p>\n

“Throughout the state, councillors worked hard to make the new arrangements succeed with limited support and funding,” he said.<\/p>\n

Mr Perret said sharing services would have saved money and allowed communities to retain their identity.<\/p>\n

Instead, Council amalgamations simply increased living costs for ordinary people.<\/p>\n

“As a former Kilkivan Shire councillor and then as Deputy Mayor of the new Gympie Regional Council, I saw first-hand the impact on smaller councils, their workforce and the social fabric of smaller communities that amalgamation has had,” Mr Perrett said.<\/p>\n

“The local has been taken out of local government.”<\/p>\n

* * *<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Footnote: In 2013, five and a half years after the amalgamations, southburnett.com.au looked at how much rates had risen across the South Burnett using pre-amalgamation rates data.<\/strong><\/p>\n

At that time we found Blackbutt residents had suffered the lowest overall rate rises (21 per cent) since the 2008 amalgamations and Kingaroy residents the highest (78 per cent).<\/p>\n

When we conducted this study the South Burnett Regional Council was still in the process of equalising rates across the region.<\/p>\n

This process has now been carried out, and rate rises are more uniform.<\/p>\n

One positive result of the 2008 amalgamation is that the South Burnett Regional Council’s overall financial rating with Queensland Treasury has improved.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The council was given a ‘weak’ rating when it amalgamated in 2008, and was placed on financial watch by the State Government.<\/p>\n

It now has a ‘moderate’ rating, which is the highest a Council of its size can achieve, and was removed from financial watch several years ago.<\/p>\n