Aussie group warns on amalgamation

Masterton

The battle lines drawn over Wairarapa's future governance and prospect of joining a Wellington super city has extended its tentacles to Australia.

A Queensland group known as the Local Government Reform Alliance (QLGRA) has issued a warning to Wairarapa people urging them to fight against regional amalgamation claiming Queensland's experience of amalgamation has been "expensive and ineffective".

The group claims it has been through seven years of amalgamation, and now de-amalgamation, of their councils.

Alliance chairman Bob Johnson said "amalgamation of local government has become a disease in Australia".

"The effect on local democracy is devastating wherever amalgamation has been put into place.

"The bureaucracy and politicians were convinced that larger local government would be more efficient economically, as well as being easier to control and administer " they were beyond wrong and significantly under-researched.

"While amalgamation might have looked like a 'bigger is better' option, I warn New Zealanders from falling into the same trap," he said.

A 2007 Reform Commission in Queensland recommended the amalgamation of 157 councils to 73. The councils are now undergoing de-amalgamation of some areas, including Noosa, where in March 2013 80 per cent of residents voted to de-amalgamate the region.

The QLGRA claims in 2008 the Queensland Government budgeted A$28 million ($29.7 million) assistance for councils to amalgamate, but actual costs were more than A$200 million.

QLGRA figures show local council debt before amalgamation was A$2 billion, but it had doubled to A$4 billion in 2014.

Operating expenditure over the same period increased by 7.4 per cent per annum, and council wages have risen by at least 3.4 per cent each year, "despite the CPI being below 2.5 per cent".

Mr Johnson said there has been strain put on communities disrupted by the whole experience. "Families and ratepayers are so disconnected from their local government they do not know who to turn to. There have been disruptions to services, a decline in Financial Assistance Grants and confusion as to where council boundaries lie."