Ms BURNET – Minister, I just wanted to ask a few questions around local government reform. There have been significant concerns around the lack of progress on local government reform in the sector and in the community over many years. I know that there is a lot going on, but it’s still not necessarily landing. We know that communities guard their local representation jealously so forced amalgamations are not welcome across many parts of Tasmania. This is one of the proposals your government was pushing hard to deliver and we need clarity on whether or not you have completely dropped forced amalgamations.
Could you say what steps you are taking to allay these concerns and what ways your government is looking at strengthening regional approaches whilst retaining community connection with local reps?
Mr STREET – There will be no forced amalgamations under this government, Ms Burnet. I can’t be any clearer than that, and that is why we have developed the three‑phase process that Mike just went through.
It was made abundantly clear to me at any meeting with councils or local government representatives that the last thing they want from the state government is a top‑down approach to the relationship. They want to work with us. They want to be respected as an independent sphere of government so we think the process that Mike outlined – where it’s the councils and the communities themselves that initiate the process around potential boundary adjustments or amalgamations – is the best way of getting community buy‑in for any of those proposals. I don’t think forced amalgamations was ever going to work anyway. It was going to lead to a stand‑offish approach with the local government sector. We recognise that we need sector and community buy‑in for any reform around boundary adjustments, amalgamations, whatever term you want to use.
The only way they’re going to work is if we can stand up a business case for a particular proposal that demonstrates to both local government representatives and the municipality that they represent the benefits that we think will flow from that particular reform. That’s exactly why we’ve put that particular three‑phase approach together with a recognition that there is going to have to be state government investment in that process as well, in terms of engaging consultants or external people to help put the work together. As I acknowledged in the Legislative Council Estimates last night, I’m acutely aware of the amount of time and resources that local governments have put into this review that we initiated, in terms of resources, staff time and commitment.
I take every opportunity I can across the state when I’m meeting with councils to thank them for their engagement, because when we started this process back in 2021, we weren’t sure that we would get the level of engagement from the sector that we got. The sector’s been far more open‑minded and proactive in terms of looking at the sort of issues that the review went to.
Ms BURNET – My second question follows on with the amount of interest there is from the state government in this local government reform. Local government as an instrument of the state parliament is often picked over, under review, and is set higher standards than even this House. In a recent survey of local government representatives across Tasmania, one respondent said that they were incredibly poorly remunerated and yet held to a higher standard than state parliamentarians, who are often on three times their pay, and some of the smaller councils get a pittance, really.
One of the proposed reviews is to look to require professional development before candidates are even elected, which I find extraordinary. Whilst professional development is important for any occupation, and arguably any tier of government representative, do you see this as a possible hindrance to having a broad assortment of representatives in the local council?
Mr STREET – I do, and there has been pushback on any form of screening. What’s not intended is some sort of screening of people for suitability to run for council. We want as broad a range of Tasmanians running for local government as possible. What we’re talking about is possibly having some sort of system where individuals who are running for council for the first time are able to educate themselves on the role that they are stepping into.
We’ve had numerous examples since the last lot of local government elections where people have been elected for the first time and have walked away in less than three months because either the job wasn’t what they expected it to be, or they didn’t feel like they were up to the job that was expected of them because it was different from what they perceived it was going to be. There’s no intention of having some sort of test or screening process for people who run for local government.
We want not just a broad a range of people, but in terms of numbers, I would like to see more people running for local government. It is not healthy when there’s nine seats available on the council and only 10 people in a municipality run ‑ that’s not giving the municipality choice, either. So, we need to find a way to encourage more people to run, but I want to make sure that those people who do run understand what the role is and the expectations that are going to be placed upon them if they’re elected.
