Size matters

Queenslander!

Andrew Fraser illustrates more concerns about council amalgamations.

"One of the reasons the Queensland Government cut the number of councils in the state from 156 to 72 was to give them size and clout to cope with development pressures."

Both NSW and Victoria have been through the sort of amalgamation process Queensland is now facing.

In NSW, the director of the Centre for Local Government at the University of New England, Brian Dollery, says that as a rule, local government is coping with these challenges of substantial population growths "with difficulty".

Dollary is sceptical about if "big is better". He also questions if the changing of responsibility for deciding land use, the main function of local government, to state government will address the problem.

So am I.

UPDATE:

Friends of Noosa have questioned Premier Bligh's pledge that will "protect building heights, vegetation and signage plus everything else Noosa wants will be included in the legislation".

So far their essential requirements have been ignored in the draft legislation. Looks like a sign of things to come. It is a dog of a policy and a dog's breakfast of legislation.

They have a list of Council Amalgamation myths worth reading also.

Water

Queenslander!

The Queensland government's takeover of water assets is a sham.

As Selwyn Johnson points out. The State Government doesn’t have the interests of water (or the people of QLD) at heart here. It doesn't even want water as it’s own asset, it wants to acquire it so it can be “bundled” and sold off to private enterprise.

This is NSW all over again, only it is a different asset and without the benefits. It is really just Kaiser at it, all over it again.