AMALGAMATION: 15 DECEMBER 2016

Let’s hope Donato wields a big stick in his meeting with Toole

After initially being fobbed off by Paul Toole, the NSW Minister for Local Government, for a meeting pre-Christmas, the freshly elected Member for Orange, Phil Donato has been granted a ministerial audience — as of course he should have been, right from the start.

Let’s just hope that Donato remembers who it was that got him into Parliament — largely the disaffected voters of Cabonne booths such as Molong, Cumnock and Mullion Creek, all of which returned absolutely massive swings against the Nationals, who ended up losing the seat they thought could never be lost.

Apart from general dissatisfaction with the arrogance and performance of the Baird-led Coalition Government, the single issue weighing heaviest on voters’ minds was that of the forced amalgamation of their council with Orange and Blayney.

Let’s hope that Donato does more than just ask politely for Toole to change his mind and that he carries and uses the big stick that he has said he would wield.

In a post-election interview with Molong Online, Donato indicated that he would use the power of his party (The Shooters, Fishers and Farmers) in the Upper House as a bargaining chip over forced amalgamations.

In that interview Donato said: “If we can’t obtain any reversal, then we use our position in the Upper House, where we have two members who jointly hold the balance of power with the Christian Democrats. We’ll use that as a bargaining tool to potentially block legislation that the Government wants to pass.

“That’s another tool — blocking legislation that’s independent of the amalgamations. We’ll just say that we’re going to block other legislation unless you heed what the people have said.”

Molong Online looks forward to reporting on the meeting between Donato and Toole, scheduled, we gather for 20 December.