Western super city on hold in reforms
The State Government has indefinitely postponed plans to create a western suburbs super council, avoiding a clash with mayors in favour of redrawing the boundaries of the City of Perth.
But its plan for the city to take in the University of WA, Queen Elizabeth II Medical Centre and the City of Vincent has hit an early snag with WA Nationals leader Terry Redman indicating his party may not support the necessary legislation.
The Government revealed yesterday that the number of Perth metropolitan councils would be cut from 30 to 21 after it accepted all but two of the recommendations from the Local Government Advisory Board.
The recommendations it knocked back proposed a more straightforward merger of Perth and Vincent and a western suburbs council including the towns of Cottesloe, Mosman Park and Claremont, the City of Nedlands and the Shire of Peppermint Grove to be called the City of Riversea.
The Government liked the western suburbs model but had to reject the recommendation to give some western suburbs assets to Perth. Under the Local Government Act, the Government can only accept or reject the advisory board's recommendations, meaning the five councils will likely be sent back to the advisory board for a fresh round of reform.
Premier Colin Barnett said the release of the Government's response reform plans was "the big step forward". "We need less levels of government, we need less conflicting rules, greater consistency and we need to be able to plan the growth of Perth in terms of transport, land use, sub-regional centres and environmental management," he said.
"With respect to legislation for the City of Perth, I would expect members of Parliament to support that. I think the Labor Party would hopefully support it, I would expect the Nationals to support it and bearing in mind the City of Vincent has supported going into the City of Perth and the only issue was they wanted the whole of Vincent to go into the City of Perth, which we've now agreed to."
Mr Redman indicated the Nationals would not support forced amalgamations and reserved the right to take a position on any piece of legislation.
"Our position hasn't changed," he said. "The Nationals WA do not support forced local government amalgamations."
The Government's plans for Perth were welcomed by Lord Mayor Lisa Scaffidi but alarmed the City of Vincent because of concerns vote weighting would be introduced to avoid the CBD being controlled by residential voters.
Across Perth, ratepayers in just six councils will have the chance to vote on reform because their boundary changes are subject to amalgamations, which trigger the Dadour poll provisions. The provisions allow electors of local governments to request a poll on proposed mergers.
They are the City of South Perth and the Town of Victoria Park, which will become the City of South Park, the City of Fremantle and the Town of East Fremantle, with East Fremantle to become part of Fremantle, and the cities of Kwinana and Cockburn, which will become the City of Jervoise Bay.
The new council names are temporary and can be changed.
Other ratepayers will not have a chance to vote because they are being shaped by boundary adjustments, not amalgamations, a fact that has angered many councils.
Country councils appear to have been given a stay of execution, with Mr Barnett saying country local government reform would not happen in the current term.
