In a major victory for democracy, the Inner West Council (IWC) decided聽on May聽24聽to conduct a referendum of residents on de-amalgamation at the聽next聽local government election.
Five Greens and three independent councillors supported聽the聽motion聽to allow the community to have a direct say in the forced amalgamation of three inner west councils in 2016. Five聽Labor and two Liberal councillors voted against.
But聽on May 26, councillors were notified by the council鈥檚 general manager that three Labor councilors who are not standing for reelection 鈥 Anna York, Lucille McKenna and Sam Iskandar 鈥 had tabled a rescission motion.
This is unlikely to pass but could cause enough delay to make it hard to get the poll on the September 4 ballot.
罢丑别听Local Government Act聽allows councils to undertake polls on specific questions, including at election time, and new amendments set out a process for de-amalgamation. A majority of residents voting to de-amalgamate would not be an automatic trigger but it would add to the pressure on the NSW government which forced the mergers to take place despite widespread opposition.
Colin Hesse, Greens councilor for Marrickville, told聽麻豆传媒聽he was pleased the motion got up, saying the聽forced amalgamations of Marrickville, Ashfield and Leichhardt Councils by the NSW government was 鈥渦ndemocratic鈥.
鈥淭he continued refusal by the Labor councillors to support a referendum of residents on the amalgamation demonstrates just how distanced from the community the Labor machine is,鈥 he said.
鈥淭he NSW government鈥檚 independent review of local government in 2014 argued that councillors in smaller local government areas were too close to their communities. The clear inferences are that councillors listened to community members too closely, and were less likely to support over-development.鈥
From prior experience on Marrickville Council, Hesse said the IWC is 鈥渕ore removed鈥 from the community. 鈥淚 do not believe this has made for better planning decisions or allocation of limited Council resources.鈥 As the NSW government assumes more planning powers and makes direct appointments to planning panels, the role played by local government in this process has gone into crisis, Hesse said. 鈥淏igger local government effectively dilutes the community voice, and that can only suit the already powerful.鈥
The substantive motion for a poll was put by independent councillors Victor Macri and John Stamolis, and amended by the Greens in discussion. Labor tried its best to filibuster, but did not succeed.
The motion instructed the NSW Electoral Commission to: 鈥淭ake a poll of electors on the question of whether the Inner West local government area should be de-amalgamated, so as to restore the former local government areas of Ashfield, Leichhardt and Marrickville with respective boundaries as they were immediately prior to 12 May 2016 (being the date of creation of the present Inner West local government area)鈥 at the September 4 poll.
It also聽called on council to 鈥渆xamine the cost of such a referendum as part of its quarterly budget review鈥, and to seek to 鈥渇orce the NSW government to聽pay 100% of costs of de-amalgamation of local government areas that were forced to amalgamate where a referendum of residents has chosen to reverse the forced amalgamation鈥.
The public gallery was packed for the debate. Seven residents spoke, all but one in favor of a poll on de-amalgamation.
[Pip Hinman is running for the in the Inner West Council. She is campaigning for de-amalgamation and spoke to the successful motion on May 24.]聽