A LAST ditch legal challenge to save Gundagai council from oblivion is before the courts.<\/p>\n
The state government went ahead with plans to forcibly amalgamate Gundagai and Cootamundra at lunchtime on Thursday, sacking democratically elected councillors and installing administrators in their place.<\/p>\n
What Premier Mike Baird didn\u2019t know was hours earlier former Gundagai mayor Abb McAlister lodged an injunction to halt the merger ahead of a full Land and Environment Court hearing.<\/p>\n
The shock court challenge comes as a whole swag of local councils were wiped from the map by way of forced mergers, which the government hopes will save $2 billion over the next 20 years.<\/p>\n
To sweeten the deal, the state government will kick in $10 million to meet the costs of merging and up to $15 million for new infrastructure.<\/p>\n
\u201cOn Tuesday, council made a decision to take legal action and we filed the papers just before the government\u2019s proclamation, when we were still a council,\u201d Mr McAlister said.<\/p>\n
Gundagai businessman John Knight \u2013 a former member of the Nationals\u2019 state executive \u2013 said the National Party had failed to protect the bush from the Liberal\u2019s razor gang.<\/p>\n
\u201cDemocracy in rural Australia is dead, it died 12 months ago when the merger process started,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis whole disaster, the merging of Gundagai council with a council four times the size, will destroy our community by taking professionals out of the town.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe National Party should never have let this get so far, they\u2019re supposed to protect small rural communities from the big business side of the Liberal Party.\u201d<\/p>\n
Despite the mergers being a Baird state government decision, Mr Knight will ask Nationals members to \u201cput their (Riverina MP) Michael McCormack how-to-vote cards in the bin\u201d at the July 2 federal election.<\/p>\n
Riverina-based former deputy prime minister Tim Fischer labelled the merger of Tumut and Tumbarumba a \u201ccolossal mistake\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a NSW state government political decision to abolish Tumbarumba Shire and for that matter to correctly retain Lockhart Shire and correctly create Federation Shire,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt follows that there can be a further NSW political decision to revoke the Tumbarumba abolition, which is a colossal mistake, and within weeks announce Tumbarumba Shire will be free-standing and independent of Tumut.\u201d<\/p>\n
LOCKHART shire is revelling in their independence, after a grass-roots community campaign convinced the state government to spare them from forced council mergers.<\/p>\n
Lockhart community volunteer Jeff Nimmo said the local economy dodged a bullet.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur jobs, our identity and our town have been saved,\u201d Mr Nimmo said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s not one vacant shop in our town but it would have become ghost town.<\/p>\n
\u201cMaybe more concerning, our residents would have lost their representation.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am over the moon.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lockhart resident Myra Jenkyn said locals were walking ten feet tall.<\/p>\n
\u201cLockhart is growing in stature by the day and we\u2019re getting a great name,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe worked hard to keep our town alive and we\u2019re all so happy.\u201d
\n“Obviously the federal election precipitated the speed by which these mergers happened.” Former Tumbarumba mayor Ian Chaffey.<\/p>\n
“The administrator hasn’t had any experience in local government, but has to convince two communities it will be alright.” Former Cootamundra mayor Jim Slattery.<\/p>\n
“There can be a further NSW political decision to revoke the Tumbarumba abolition, which is a colossal mistake, and within weeks announce a further adjustment mainly that Tumbarumba Shire will be freestanding and independent of Tumut.” Former deputy prime minister Tim Fischer.<\/p>\n
\u201cDemocracy is dead in rural Australia.\u201d Gundagai businessman John Knight.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe NSW Government has listened to community concerns and created new wards that reflect the identity of existing communities,\u201d local government minister Paul Toole.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A LAST ditch legal challenge to save Gundagai council from oblivion is before the courts. The state government went ahead with plans to forcibly amalgamate Gundagai and Cootamundra at lunchtime on Thursday, sacking democratically elected councillors and installing administrators in their place. What Premier Mike Baird didn\u2019t know was hours earlier former Gundagai mayor Abb … Continue reading “Former Gundagai mayor takes on Baird government”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3913","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-hume"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.onradio.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3913","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.onradio.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.onradio.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.onradio.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.onradio.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3913"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.onradio.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3913\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.onradio.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3913"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.onradio.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3913"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.onradio.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3913"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}