While council amalgamations have been extensive across Australia in recent decades, organised opposition and one blundered attempt has made it a nonstarter here in WA.
John Carey has made his stance on council amalgamations clear.
Asked where he was on the matter just days after being sworn in as the state’s local government minister, Mr Carey was adamant he would not seek to forcibly merge any of the state’s local governments.
He reiterated his opposition again this month when asked why they did not feature as part of the state’s newly unveiled set of local government reforms.
“The reality is the last attempt at amalgamations was simply a complete bludgeoning stuff-up,” Mr Carey said.
“It was so poorly done.
“It burned so many people; it burned the community [as well as] local governments that actually invested in the process, and I believe we need to take local government on a journey with us.”
Mr Carey’s objection is understandable.
Colin Barnett made council amalgamations a centrepiece of his second term as premier, suffering dearly as councils across the state mobilised in opposition.
Still, with many newly announced reforms geared towards streamlining approvals, resource sharing and cutting red tape, the absence of a process for amalgamations stands out.
That’s a view shared by Larry Graham, whose recent tussles with his local council has transformed the famously outspoken former Pilbara MP into a prominent crusader for local government reform in Western Australia.
Mr Graham doesn’t dispute the need for local government, nor the work ethic of many of the state’s councillors.
As noted in his submission to the state government’s Local Government Review Panel, though, he thinks the Act is outdated, particularly when it comes to the process for setting the boundaries of the state’s 139 councils.
“If we didn't have a system of local government, and … you were a cabinet minister, and you walked into cabinet with the current system and said, ‘G’day, look, I think we'll do this for a system of local government’, the premier would probably sack you [for being] a blistering incompetent,” Mr Graham said.
The panel’s final report did recognise the need for an updated Act, with chair David Michael using his introductory statement to argue in favour of councils that are agile and inclusive, as well as recognise that society and technologies have changed alongside community expectations.
Amalgamations, however, were not directly recommended in the panel’s report when it was handed to the state government in March 2020.
That they weren’t confounded Mr Graham.
“Imagine your car being broken down on the side of the road and you say, ‘Gee, my car’s broken down on the side of the road, how should I fix this? I know, I’ll empty the ash tray’,” he said.
“It’s just dumb.”
Mr Graham’s incredulity isn’t without basis.
While local government amalgamations have proved highly contentious in WA, most other jurisdictions have embarked on state-wide reforms since the 1990s.
Victoria was the first state to push through changes, when Jeff Kennett, during his first term as premier, sacked thousands of councillors and reduced the state’s local governments from 210 to 78 in the early 1990s.
Just one council, the rural Shire of Delatite in the state’s north-east, has demerged since then, becoming the Rural City of Benalla and the Shire of Mansfield in 2002.
Mr Kennett’s reforms were later copied in Tasmania, which cut its 46 councils to 29, and South Australia, where 119 local governments became 68 before the turn of the century through a largely voluntary process.
Queensland was the next state to pare back local government representation, when then-premier Peter Beattie appointed the state’s former electoral commissioner, Bob Longland, to lead a commission advising on local government reform in 2007.
That Queensland body identified concerns that council boundaries drawn at federation were beginning to have a negative impact on the sector’s financial sustainability as they did not reflect population shifts, changing community expectations and new modes of transport.
The state subsequently cut its 156 councils by more than half, to 72, with five demerging since then.
In the mid-2010s, then NSW premier Mike Baird similarly adopted independent advice and reduced the number of the state’s councils from 152 to 112.
However, the matter proved most contentious, with 16 councils, ranging from the state’s regions to suburban councils in metropolitan Sydney, splitting since the reforms were first implemented.
In total, these reforms have led to nearly 300 local governments across Australia being scrubbed off the map in the past 30 years.
In WA, however, council numbers have remained relatively stable, despite Mr Barnett’s attempts to halve metropolitan council numbers in the mid-2010s.
One reason for the pushback is that tampering with council boundaries is generally thought to be politically toxic.
The federal government likely knew as much in 2007, when, amid a federal election campaign it would eventually lose, it sponsored a non-binding plebiscite targeting six councils in south-east Queensland that largely overlapped with marginal electorates.
All returned ‘no’ votes of between 62 and 95 per cent.
Politicians who champion amalgamations have also historically suffered at the ballot box.
While Mr Kennett has become something of an authority on the subject in recent years, his loss at the 1999 state election came amid flagging popularity among regional voters, who themselves had been particularly rankled by his government’s amalgamations push.
A similar fate befell his counterpart in Tasmania, Tony Rundle, who lost government in 1998 after he put forward a plan to further reduce the state’s councils by the 2000s.
Messrs Beattie and Baird’s governments avoided a total revolt from voters, having won elections after pushing through forced amalgamations.
Still, they suffered sharp swings, and lost seats concurrent with their efforts.
No similar effort has taken root in SA, but renewed calls for further council mergers from Adelaide’s lord mayor, Sandy Verschoor, and the state’s division of the Property Council earlier this year were met with fierce opposition from the local government sector.
WA voters are well acquainted with rejecting amalgamations.
Thanks to the Act’s ‘Dadour’ provision, voters are allowed to have a say on merger proposals through a referendum.
Even successful amalgamations, such as the one that brought together Geraldton-Greenough and Mullewa, faced community opposition, with voters from those respective councils voting 72 per cent and 83 per cent against the proposal.
Neither referendum effected change, however, given low turnout failed to make the outcome legally binding.
Still, opposition across the state is firm, and WA stands apart from the rest of the country with more local governments than any other state or territory in the country.
In some ways this has been unavoidable as WA is Australia’s largest state by area and most geographically diverse.
From an organisational perspective, though, most of the state’s 139 councils service a small population, which has resulted in administrations that are reliant on a narrow, homogenous group of ratepayers for revenue.
The state government’s review was cognisant of how most of the state’s councils lacked the population or land to be efficient financial operations, noting significant financial resources are devoted to interventions to ensure good governance
Data from the state’s MyCouncil website supports this assertion, with just 32 per cent of councils meeting criteria for being ‘financially sound’ in the year to June 2020, representing a downward trend since 2017, when 51 per cent of councils were considered to have met this threshold.
Many smaller councils also struggle to find candidates willing to serve in elected office.
Local elections were held across WA in October, but the shires of Tammin, Kent, Ravensthorpe and Chapman Valley, home to populations of between 400 and 1,700 residents, have already scheduled extraordinary elections because nobody elected to run for positions the first time around.
The lack of competition wasn’t reserved for regional councils.
In Perth’s western suburbs, just one candidate contested mayoral elections in East Fremantle, Mosman Park and Claremont, respectively, this year, meaning they were effectively elected to their jobs unopposed once nominations closed.
Mr Graham is among those critical of the state’s unwieldy number of local governments, with his submission to the panel’s review noting that WA’s local government sector houses more than 1,000 elected members, compared to 59 state parliamentarians and 15 federal parliamentarians.
Gary Brennan, who served as Bunbury’s mayor between 2013 and 2021 and was previously chief of staff to Mr Barnett’s first local government minister, John Castrilli, holds a similar view on the matter.
“When you look at Australia, WA has roughly 10 per cent of the nation’s population, yet we have 20 per cent of the nation’s elected members,” Mr Brennan said.
“You look at places like the Wheatbelt areas, there’s populations … of 60,000 or so people throughout the whole Wheatbelt, and you’ve got about 40 local governments in that area.
“If it wasn’t for the [Local Government] Grants Commission funding, a lot of those local governments wouldn’t be able to survive financially.”
Amalgamations in WA
Tony Simpson takes great pride in his 12-year political career, which included stints as a parliamentary secretary, government whip and, eventually, local government minister under Mr Barnett.
Still, a quick Google search of his name returns dozens of results documenting his failed attempt at sweeping amalgamations of WA’s councils while serving as Mr Barnett’s local government minister.
He’s quick to note his attempts weren’t a total failure.
In 2016, Mr Simpson merged Narrogin’s shire and town following two unsuccessful attempts under earlier state governments.
Closer to Perth, local government amalgamations remain a politically toxic proposition, with David Templeman, who held the local government portfolio during Mark McGowan’s first term as premier, never touching the subject.
“I actually saw [amalgamations] as a really good thing to do,” Mr Simpson said.
“I’d go down in history as finally doing it, and the end of it, I got none of it.”
Mr Simpson had good reason to believe he’d earn plaudits for taking on amalgamations.
Mr Barnett had just been re-elected in a landslide, and council amalgamations, an idea that floated in the background during the first term, had bubbled to the fore and become a centrepiece of Mr Barnett’s second term.
From day one, though, Mr Simpson faced significant headwinds, most notably from Nationals leader Terry Redman, who conditioned support on the reforms only being geared towards metropolitan councils.
That left Mr Barnett to settle for amalgamating the state’s 30 metropolitan councils into 15 via referenda, in part because he had ruled out forced amalgamations in a newsletter sent to his own constituents in Perth’s western suburbs ahead of the 2013 poll.
Mr Barnett faced an independent challenge from Cottesloe mayor Kevin Morgan ahead of that election.
The promise proved politically costly, Mr Simpson argued, as it unnecessarily tied the state government to seeking approval for mergers via referendums.
“Once he said that, we were buggered,” he said.
“We couldn’t go anywhere.”
Henry Zelones, who served on Armadale’s council for three decades and was its mayor between 2011 and 2019, echoed that view.
“Tony was a likable guy, good intentions, [but] I think he was hamstrung by the premier,” Mr Zelones said.
In the end, the state government’s stance against forced amalgamations meant Mr Simpson sought majority approval, regardless of turnout, in five referendums held across Cockburn, Kwinana, East Fremantle, South Perth and Victoria Park in 2015, to determine a handful of metropolitan amalgamations.
All failed, with the ‘no’ vote prevailing by between 62 per cent and 88 per cent.
Mr Simpson attributes the failed effort to several factors, including opposition from officials in the western suburbs and the use of binding referendums.
Others in the sector, including Mr Zelones, also fault the state government for being insufficiently cooperative with the sector, arguing it did not lend enough support to those councils that were receptive to potential mergers.
“They had the rug pulled out from them when they were essentially not going to be supported with financial help,” Mr Zelones told Business News.
“That's where it really became difficult.
“The City of Armadale spent over $1 million; we had to hire additional officers and the time involved was considerable.
“That just kind of … left a sour taste for all of us who did see something in some amalgamations at the time.”
He was unsurprised the current state government won’t pursue forced amalgamations.
“It was disastrous for the Barnett government,” Mr Zelones said.
“I think the Liberals are in no position to make promises one way or another at the moment.
“For those [in the state government] that are still there, and have that memory, they’re not going to pursue that, but I do think they should make a commitment to assisting local governments in achieving better efficiencies, transparency, accountability.
“Whatever it takes, they should be right behind that.”
Amalgamations have sat on the backburner ever since, with Mr Carey reiterating his opposition when reached for comment by Business News.
“I have been clear and consistent that I have no intention to pursue forced amalgamations,” he said.
“I am a big advocate for local governments sharing resources and I know there are many across the state doing this to improve efficiency and deliver better services for their community.”
Mr Carey notes the current Act allows for voluntary amalgamations if councils decide it is in their best interest to do so.
“My current focus is on developing a package of reforms to modernise the Act aimed at improving transparency, accountability and the functionality of the local government sector,” he said.
Opposition
With the state government firmly opposed to amalgamations, it’s hard to find a powerful supporter in WA.
Forced amalgamations are opposed by the WA Local Government Association, which lobbies and negotiates on behalf of local government in the state and is, according to Data & Insights, the third largest association in the state as ranked by staff members.
Its latest position statement, published in July, WALGA states amalgamations should only be undertaken on a voluntary basis, on the premise that voters should not have to pay for reforms they either haven’t endorsed or supported.
Every council in the state is a member of WALGA, although the City of Nedlands withdrew its membership in 2013.
That came about after then-mayor Max Hipkins claimed WALGA had become too close to the state government in helping facilitate its preferred amalgamations.
Nedlands returned in 2020 after the city’s administration deemed the benefits, such as access to consolidated contracts and preferred supplier panels, outweighed the cost of membership.
Councils in Perth’s western suburbs are no more supportive of mergers, either.
“The state government has clearly stated their position that there will be no forced amalgamations of local governments,” Shire of Peppermint Grove president Rachel Thomas said.
“We support that position.”
Paul Shaw, who has served on Mosman Park’s council since 2017 and was elected to the town’s top job unopposed in October, said he opposed the most recent efforts to amalgamate the state’s councils in part because they were never presented with a business case for the mergers.
“Council amalgamations, like business mergers, are disruptive and expensive exercises,” he said.
“On this basis, a clear case for change has to be made before I could support any amalgamation proposals.”
Mr Shaw said the benefits would have to be clearly explained to him if he were to support any future proposals, airing concerns with how councillors and administration officials could become less accessible if Mosman Park was merged with surrounding councils.
“There is concern that amalgamation would erode that access and diminish the voice of the local community,” he said.
Some figures remain optimistic about the prospect of reform, including Mr Brennan, who argued that amalgamations will eventually occur through a community-led process.
Others, such as City of Stirling Mayor Mark Irwin, suggest many smaller councils will need to eventually confront the economic reality of relying on government funding to stay afloat.
Mr Irwin, who leads the state’s largest council by population with 221,000 residents spanning an area bound by North Beach, Mirrabooka, Mount Lawley, and Wembley Downs, can attest to the challenge of operating a council of significant scale.
Its workforce of 1,000 staff is the largest of any council in the state, while its revenue intake is second only to Ravensthorpe in the South West.
On one hand, Mr Irwin said the city’s size gave it significant heft in terms of lobbying for state and federal funding and allowed for targeted infill and fewer personalised planning decisions.
On the other hand, however, its significant remit meant councillors were often tasked with immense workloads, and residents often expected more services than would be provided by smaller local governments.
Mr Irwin doesn’t support forced amalgamations but acknowledged the challenges confronted by many of the state’s smaller local governments.
“I have no doubt that the model needs to change over time,” he said.
“It’s not about forcing amalgamations, but … about enabling those smaller councils who are in that situation to be able to identify it for themselves and be able to work towards better shared services models.”
Mr Shaw, who leads one of the smallest councils in the state by area, recognised it was incumbent upon smaller councils to cooperate across boundaries to provide best services.
He pointed to several efforts, including Mosman Park’s participation in the Western Metropolitan Regional Council with Subiaco, Claremont, Cottesloe, and Peppermint Grove for shared waste management, as evidence of this collaboration.
Strengthening partnerships with nearby councils has already been a key part of his brief tenure as mayor.
“I am pleased to report that like us they recognise that such partnering has financial and strategic benefits for all of us,” Mr Shaw said.
“I believe that this kind of partnering can deliver most of the benefits of council amalgamations while ensuring that the voices of the local Mosman Park community are heard and respected.”
Consultation and broader reforms will likely be key to any future reform, with NSW, the most recent state to undertake state-wide amalgamations, providing a cautionary tale.
There, the process became mired in legal challenges from an array of councils, with several successfully reversing proposed amalgamations in court on technical grounds.
By the time Mr Baird resigned in 2017, his successor, Gladys Berejiklian, had little opportunity but to cut her losses and mothball the amalgamations in metropolitan Sydney.
Graham Sansom, an adjunct professor at the University of Technology Sydney’s Institute for Public Policy and Governance, provided independent advice to NSW’s state government on the reforms and was frank in describing some of the issues with the state’s reforms.
“A lot of the recommendations that we put forward for complementary policy changes either weren’t followed up at all, or were followed up, but the various reports that the government commissioned [weren’t acted upon] for two or three years after the mergers were pushed through,” Professor Sansom said.
“So, the complementary reforms to things like [council ratings] and so on just didn’t happen.
“That’s why some of the amalgamations have really struggled, because they were operating with an unsuitable set of policies.”
Nowadays, notable critics of Mr Baird’s efforts include the state’s recently resigned deputy premier John Barilaro, who in June supported a push by residents in the Cootamundra-Gundagai Regional Council in his state electorate of Monaro to demerge the council to its original boundaries.
That view was supported by the state’s Boundaries Commission, which recommended in a report published in July that the two councils demerge.
Professor Sansom is keen to emphasise that amalgamations are an opportunity, not a solution, while rejecting claims that amalgamations will always lead to lower rates and efficiencies.
He advised the NSW government in an independent capacity on local government reform and sat on the local government review panel in WA.
Professor Sansom said that, while there was potential for WA to look at some amalgamations, they would be best implemented as part of broader reforms.
“It all comes down to the fine print of, ‘What exactly are you trying to achieve?’” he said.
“Can you persuade people that this is the right thing to do, and that there will be benefits? Will you put the right supporting policies in place to turn the opportunity into good results?’”
