WA Local Government Association President Cr Bill Mitchell said it was critical that voluntary reform remain central to the process to ensure genuine long term sustainability of Local Government.

As one of the Local Government representatives on the committee that produced the report, Cr Mitchell said it was encouraging that the core concepts of WALGA’s Systemic Sustainability Study had been included.

“The Association invested considerable time and resources into researching, analysing and consulting in the production of the SSS report which had the overwhelming support of the sector,” Cr Mitchell said.

“It is sensible that the key elements of such a volume of work and contribution by Local Government itself is recognised and supported by the State Government’s reform process.”

Key recommendations of the interim report are:

• to acknowledge that nine Councils have volunteered to merge into three new entities
• a transition process be created for Councils that wanted to volunteer to further explore amalgamations
• a collaborative model of regional shared services for Councils for which amalgamation is not appropriate

Cr Mitchell said regional shared services was a key component of the SSS final report released 15 months ago and was the model Local Governments were working towards prior to the announcement of the State Government reform process last February.

He said that Local Governments should be aware that while the “transition model” recommended in the interim report requires Councils to volunteer to participate, it does not have an “opt out” clause if found later not to be suitable.

The three amalgamations to immediately result from the first year of the State Government process follow the three other amalgamations in recent years – Geraldton and Greenough; Northam Shire and Town; Broomehill and Tambellup.

“As long as the reform process remains voluntary it will continue to be supported by WALGA and the majority of the Local Government sector,” Cr Mitchell said.

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