Bruce Scott (Maranoa, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise in the adjournment debate tonight to speak on the proposal put forward by the Queensland Labor government to force amalgamations on local shires across Queensland without giving them their democratic right to a say in that process. This week, the Queensland Labor government will introduce legislation into the House to force amalgamations of shires across Queensland. They have gone about this process in a very sneaky and underhanded way. The case has not been made by the Labor government in Queensland to suggest that councils need to amalgamate with others—against their will, without a say and without an opportunity for local mayors and councillors to have input into that process.

The councils across Queensland were going through a process called a size and sustainability process. Perhaps as a result of that there would have been some adjustments to local government boundaries in Queensland. There may have been some total amalgamations in other areas, but it would have been done on the basis of what is good for those communities in respect of the size of those councils and the sustainability of their proposals. But all that was denied by the Queensland Labor government. Towards the end of that process, when councils were about to make their recommendations to the Labor minister in Queensland, Minister Fraser said: ‘No, we’re not going to accept all that work you’ve done. I am going to go into the parliament and bring forward legislation that will strip the right of councils across Queensland, including the people of Queensland, to conduct a referendum on any proposed boundary change that may be proposed by councils or by government.’ He took that out of the legislation, thereby denying the people of Queensland their democratic right to have a say in how they shape their councils and their communities into the future.

Local government is the first tier of government in this country. It plays a very important part in the efficient and smooth operation of so many communities across Australia. If the legislation goes through the Queensland parliament this week, my electorate of Maranoa, which has 36 local councils, will end up with 20. I will end up with 16 local councils amalgamated with other councils. They will all be abolished without the right of appeal by those communities against those decisions.

Do we have an interest in local government in Queensland or in any part of Australia? You bet we do. We provide financial assistance grants to local governments to provide services at a local level. We provide money for roads through the Roads to Recovery program to local councils to support the construction of local roads and bridges and to improve those roads in those communities. One of the great successes that we have had in road funding in this country is Roads to Recovery. Funding bypasses the state government and goes direct to local councils, which spend every dollar on building better roads in their community.

Rural transaction centres is another program under the Regional Partnerships program. The Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Transport and Regional Services, who is in chamber now, would be well aware of that program. I highlight what that has meant for a small community in the Aramac shire. This shire will be amalgamated with two other shires and the local council will be removed as a result of this process and will no longer be located in the Aramac shire. The Aramac shire, through our rural transaction centres program, established a rural transaction centre and through that process was able to attract a bank back into town. That council puts its $7 million of rate revenue through that bank every year. That is what helps keep the bank in that town. The Beattie government is going to abolish that shire. What will happen? The bank will go, because all that revenue will go to where the headquarters of this larger supershire will be located. So there goes the bank. Next will go the schools and then the hospitals. There will be a slow disintegration of so many rural communities that have been kept together. The glue that keeps them together, the local leadership that keeps these communities together, will be abolished by the state Labor government. I commend the Prime Minister on saying in the House today that the government will fund a referendum through the Australian Electoral Commission, and I urge councils to take up that offer. (Time expired)