Fit For The Future Reforms Causing Friction

By Marcus Braid on February 3, 2015 in News

Former Randwick Mayor Tony Bowen has labelled Randwick Council’s community consultation process to the state government’s Fit for the Future reforms as a “distraction”.

Randwick Council has sent out seven options for residents to consider in response to the state government’s $1 billion Fit for the Future reforms, which ask many Sydney councils to consider a merger.

The seven options consider the potential benefits and costs of Randwick Council amalgamating under different models with its neighbouring councils of Waverley, Woollahra, Botany Bay and the City of Sydney.

Cr Bowen said there needed to be a “reality check” about responding to the state government’s potential reforms.

“Randwick councillors can sit down and talk until they’re blue in the face about what they want, but the fact is the decision will be a decision of the state government,” he said.

“This is all a distraction and I’m convinced this is a political strategy that could well result not in an amalgamation of Randwick Council, but the breakup of a council along political lines. That’s the real concern.

“What does that mean for services and rates? This should all be taking place in front of an argument of why are they doing it, rather than some oppressive policy from the state government saying ‘this is what we’re going to do’.”

The seven options involving various mergers of the four councils were generated by a committee comprised of Randwick councillors Ted Seng (Liberal), Anthony Andrews (Independent), Murray Matson (Greens) and Kathy Neilson (Labor).

“Originally they were trying to dictate to us who would be on the committee,” Mr Bowen said. “The real telling point was in the debate at the council about how the committee would be formed. One of the councillors said it needed to be constrained to like-minded councillors. My view is this committee does not reflect the broad cross-section of our community, or indeed of our council.”

Cr Bowen said it was more likely that Randwick Council would be broken up, rather than a direct merger with other councils.

“They have done studies – I know for a fact – on the voting patterns,” he said. “I think it would be more likely that Randwick Council would be broken up, and I think that’s what people need to understand. If it’s going to be a political solution to this, which I think it will be because there’s no cogent economic or other argument being put forward, that would result in a break up of Randwick Council, which would be an absolute travesty.

“It’s that Botany/southern Randwick part that’s problematic for the Libs, so the whole nature of the discussion has been between the Randwick Libs and Waverley Libs. If they want to tie that all into the city, they would be looking at doing something else to the southern part.

“I have no confidence, particularly given the history of urban activation, which hasn’t gone away, where there are big incentives for intense development from a government that has shown it is pretty keen on development. All these state candidates need to tell us what their position is.”

Bruce Notley-Smith, the state government’s Member for Coogee, said he wanted to see what the local community thinks before forming a stance on council mergers.

“I don’t want to preempt what they are going to say or what their preference is,” he said. “I can tell you what I do not support though, and that it is amalgamation with the City of Sydney. They’ve got very different communities of interest, so I’m certainly not in support of that proposal and never have been.

“The borders, particularly between Waverley, Randwick and Woollahra, are more or less the same as they were 150 years ago. There hasn’t been a serious look at those boundaries in that time. Randwick’s approach is actually reaching out to the community and they must be commended for the way in which they’re doing it.”

Randwick Mayor Ted Seng said the NSW Government has made is clear that doing nothing is not an option.

“Randwick City Council already has a balanced budget and remains debt-free,” he said. “Council is operating well and providing high quality services and facilities for our community.

“We don’t support the creation of a global city as we value our Randwick identity, local representation and existing quality services.

“We are opposed to the amalgamation of Randwick City Council in any form, however we are required to address the NSW Government’s Fit for the Future criteria by June 30.”

Council will commence a series of community consultation activities in February and has released a website for residents to access all the information about the Fit for the Future program at www.yoursayrandwick.nsw.gov.au/future.