POSSIBLE council amalgamation is only one part of the current review of local government in Tasmania, says Local Government Minister Nic Street. He said the Tasmanian local government review had everything on the agenda, including and not limited to council amalgamations.
Mr Street visited King Island this week to meet the council, representatives from Sport and Recreation, Events, Tourism and Community Services. The Tasmanian Government and the Local Government Board are undertaking a review of the role, function and design of local government in Tasmania Mr Street said.
“Primarily I was here to visit the local council as Minister for Local Government,” he said. “The impetus was the local government review that’s going on. I wanted to speak to the King Island Council face to face.” “The local government reviews about much more than just amalgamation. “It’s looking at service delivery, what councils deliver, versus what they’re best placed to deliver. “Amalgamation is only one part of it. “But inevitably, when we talk about reviews of local government, the first thing that gets talked about is amalgamation. “But really, we’re looking at how we can make our councils more sustainable as well.
“The councillors that I met, were very keen to point out that their role on King Island is as advocates for the island, particularly the state and federal government, and the fact that if they were amalgamated with the larger council on mainland Tasmania, they’re not sure that they would receive the same level of advocacy from that council, just because of the proportions of the two areas. “So yes, amalgamation is a part of the conversation that’s going on.
“As the Local Government Minister, I haven’t come here to tell King Island that they need to amalgamate. “I’ve come to listen to the issues the councillors have raised. “Everything is on the agenda at the minute. We’ve tried to make it clear to every council that we visited, King Island, being the 29th and last [council], is that when we put the review in place, nothing was off the agenda, and nothing was off the table. “But at the same time, there’s no set agenda from the state government. “We’ve selected the people to go on the review board very deliberately. “They’ve all got local government experience or finance experience. They’ve got a broad range of experiences and we’ll wait until June next year when the final report comes in and their recommendations come in and then we’ll sit down and work with the councils on what we think we can do to improve the local government sector.”
During his meeting with the council other King Island issues were discussed including the airport. Mr Street has three other portfolios Hospitality and Events, Community Services and Sport and Recreation and he was able to meet representatives from King Island organisations covering all portfolios.
As Minister for Community Services, he met Phoenix Community House and after the meeting said freight and getting to and from King Island were obviously major concerns… “You’ve got 30 per cent cost of living on top of everything else that we’re dealing with on the mainland of Tasmania. “It’s making everything more expensive on King Island and driving the demand for services at Phoenix House. “Life is difficult on King Island for some people – there are more requests for food relief and other services as well. “There’s a cost-of-living issue for people living on King Island.”
Mr Street had a breakfast meeting with King Island’s tourism, hospitality and events, sport, and recreation representatives. He explained the main purpose of events funding was to support events that either generate interstate visitation to Tasmania or visitation that moves people around Tasmania. He confirmed that King Island fit perfectly in this framework and he would encourage any idea that King Island came up with. “It doesn’t really matter what it is. It needs to be presented to Events Tasmania in terms of attracting people to King Island. “Events Tasmania looks favourably on proposals like that.”
The Minister visited the golf courses, but the weather wasn’t favourable to fit in a round so he plans to return and play each course, “maybe twice”.