Abstract
When an Australian state or territory government launches a program of forced municipal mergers, it typically attracts much less attention in metropolitan areas compared with regional, rural and remote locations where the local council is often “government of last resort”. In these latter areas the socio-economic effects of compulsory council consolidation can be severe. This paper explores the perceived impact of the forced amalgamation of Guyra Shire Council with the much larger neighbouring Armidale Dumaresq Council under the recent New South Wales (NSW) Government’s Fit for the Future structural reform program by anticipated by Guyra residents who participated in a focus group.
Highlights
In metropolitan Australia, council boundaries are often demarcated by city streets and residents are frequently unaware of the council area in which they live
In order to address this gap in the literature, the present paper examines the expectations of Guyra Shire Council (GSC) residents – as articulated by a focus group comprised of residents of the former GSC local government area – on the likely impact of the forced amalgamation
We assembled a small focus group comprised of citizens of Guyra – the main centre – in the former GSC which had been compulsorily consolidated with its much larger neighbour, the Armidale Dumaresq Council (ADC) based in Armidale
Summary
In metropolitan Australia, council boundaries are often demarcated by city streets and residents are frequently unaware of the council area in which they live. The Fit for the Future policy process generated a substantial body of empirical evidence in the scholarly literature This literature is summarised, with this paper contributing further the range of studies by examining the attitudes and expectations of GSC residents; to this end, it invokes the views of a focus group of Guyra residents on the forced merger of the GSC. Brian Dollery and Joseph Drew, ‘Hired Guns: Local Government Mergers in New South Wales and the KPMG Modelling Report’ (2017) 27 (82) Australian Accounting Review 263. Government, 2014) 4 TCorp, Guyra Shire Council––Financial Assessment and Benchmarking Report (NSW Treasury Corporation, 2013) TCorp, Financial Sustainability of the New South Wales Local Government Sector, 14 37 Guyra Shire Council, Rural Council Proposal (Guyra Shire Council, 2015). Regional Development Australia, Northern Inland NSW releases The Economic Impacts of Local Government Amalgamations, which shows the potential loss of local economic activity resulting from a forced council merger and associated centralised employment.
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