Great Expectations? Forced Local Government Amalgamations in the New England 2004/16

Abstract

<p>Local government in Australia has long been subjected to official scrutiny over its financial viability and sustainability. To make local government more economically viable, compulsory council consolidation has been a recurrent theme in recent decades, particularly but not exclusively, for councils located in regional, rural and remote Australia. Proponents of forced municipal mergers assert that a larger administrative unit produces cost-savings through economies of scale and enhances strategic performance, and thus is a logical remedy to resolve the sector's fiscal distress. Despite the ubiquity of forced council amalgamation in Australia, empirical evidence that proves a larger administrative unit is more economically or strategically efficient is at best inconclusive. Successive implementations of forced local government mergers have typically been executed via a prescriptive policy of 'one size fits all' and has ignored the diverse nature of Australian councils. The consequences of such an imposed amalgamation policy, particularly for nonmetropolitan councils and their communities, has remained a neglected area of enquiry for scholars and officials.</p> <p>This thesis examines the human aspects of forced local government amalgamations by examining the 'lived experience' of compulsory council mergers from the perspectives of Australian's living in small, rural communities in New South Wales (NSW). It is argued that forced municipal mergers, at least from the perspective of residents, is not a beneficial policy and does not necessarily improve the communities economic or social wellbeing. This conclusion is reached through five separate, but interrelated, case studies highlighting that forced council consolidation does not alleviate local government's longstanding financial problems. Rather mergers often provide the catalyst which creates adverse multiplier effects in communities which have undergone a forced council amalgamation.</p>