At a resident-initiated Balmain candidate forum at Leichhardt Town Hall on March 9, (RFD) asked Philippa Scott from Labor and Kobi Shetty from the Greens about their views on demerging the Inner West Council (IWC) and respecting local democracy.
Both candidates for the seat of Balmain are first-time Inner West councillors and Scott is the deputy mayor.
鈥淚 am really proud of the way that the IWC has handled what could have been a very disruptive demerger process,鈥 Scott said in response to a question about why the IWC had sent a business case to the local government minister arguing for the IWC to stay merged at the end of last year, despite 62.5% voting to demerge.
To some incredulity, Scott went on to say: 鈥淲e campaigned on and have acted on respecting the communities鈥 wishes on the December 2021 poll.鈥
She added: 鈥淲hat I will not do, and what you cannot expect Labor to do, is to go back and rewrite the business case so as to achieve a particular predetermined outcome.
鈥淐ooking the books on a business case is a hallmark of the Liberal-National government 鈥 Rorting business cases, cooking the books and going back to independent reviews so as to achieve a political outcome is something that is an LNP way of acting.
鈥淚t is not something you can ever ask or expect from a Labor candidate, MP or government will ever do. But we do need to change this government in NSW to ensure that this kind of rorting stops now.鈥
Shetty said the Greens support the fact that 鈥62.5% of our community voted to demerge鈥, adding that Scott might be 鈥渕issing the point鈥.
The point is that 鈥渃ommitments from the vast majority of councillors, who are now on this council, that they would honour the wishes of the community and put a strong business case to the minister for local government to demerge our council鈥 have not been met.
Shetty added that the business case, 鈥渨hich involved push polling鈥 to get residents to change their minds about the demerger by scaring them about the 鈥渆xorbitant costs鈥, was not good enough.
鈥淚t really was an effort to try and weaken the case for a demerger,鈥 she said.
The business case submitted to the minister failed to mention the gains that would flow from any demerger, she said, pointing to local representation, grassroots democracy and 鈥渢he ability for our local communities to really guide the decisions of the council鈥.
Shetty added that independent and Greens councillors have been 鈥渋ncredibly frustrated鈥 with the demerger process. 鈥淲e believe that we should be listening to the residents and following through with their wishes, because that is what we are there to do.鈥
A question from Demerger NSW Alliance about support to amend the to hold binding demerger plebiscites in all the forcibly merged councils, where 10% of residents in the former council boundary petitioned the minister to do so, before local government elections in September next year, received an enthusiastic 鈥測es鈥 from Shetty.
鈥淭he point here is that we don鈥檛 need to do another poll鈥 in the Inner West, Shetty said. 鈥淲e know what the community wants and we need to respect that and 鈥 work towards the demerger that they felt like they were promised when they were given the opportunity to vote at the last local government elections.鈥
Scott answered that her understanding of the act is that this provision already exists. 鈥淪hould the communities be so motivated to put forward a petition to do that, I would welcome them to do so just as the people of the Inner West have done.鈥
In fact, there is no such binding clause. allows communities to make a submission to the minister, who then has to refer it to the NSW Boundaries Commission to make a recommendation. But the minister can ignore that or act on it. NSW Demerger Alliance wants parties to commit to changing the law to make it binding, so ministers have to act on residents鈥 wishes to demerger.
Scott was later challenged by a resident over a Labor flyer that falsely asserted that voting one Greens, and two Labor 鈥渞isks returning the Liberals to power鈥.
Meanwhile, Scott has hit the headlines for allegedly trying to buy votes in Balmain.
The reported on March 15 that Scott鈥檚 campaign manager Kieren Ash offered Leichhardt Public School Parents and Citizens (P&C) group $20,000 from an internal campaign fund, claiming it was contingent on the party winning the election.
The P&C, which was told the 鈥淟abor Community Grants program鈥 was based on the existing government Community Building Partnership Grants scheme, rejected the funding over concerns it lacked an application or vetting process and could be considered pork-barrelling.
[Pip Hinman is an activist with Residents for Deamalgamation and NSW Demerger Alliance.]