PETITION: 15 APRIL 2017

A call to help those who helped Cabonne avoid amalgamation

Cabonne may have been saved from the clutches of the State government’s forced-amalgamation agenda, but for many ratepayers around NSW the fight is still on.

Molong Online agrees with Rhonda Watt, a Cumnock anti-amalgamation activist, that many of the communities under threat helped us save Cabonne, so we need to help them before the NSW government forces more mergers.

She — and Molong Online — therefore urge Cabonne residents to seriously consider putting their names to a petition organised by Peter Primrose, the NSW Labor Party’s Shadow Minister for Local Government. The link to the petition is given below.

Peter sent the following letter to Rhonda and other prominent opponents of forced amalgamations:

“In May 2016, Premier Mike Baird and Deputy Premier Troy Grant dismissed hundreds of democratically-elected councillors across the State.

“With a stroke of the pen hundreds of thousands of voters were left with no voice in local government. Sign the petition now to say no to forced council amalgamations.

"Today, the Liberal’s and National’s failed council-amalgamations policy continues under Gladys Berejiklian and John Barilaro.

"In September this year, the Government will send 14 councils, currently fighting forced mergers, to elections, knowing that the councillors who are elected could get the sack just weeks later.

"The announcement of these elections signals that the Government is getting ready to ditch its controversial policy of forced council amalgamations. We need your help to keep the pressure on, sign the petition now!

"This is about more than who deals with your rates, roads and rubbish. It’s about who represents your community, and the government has made a dog’s breakfast of it from the start.

"Today we call on the government to formally abandon forced amalgamations for the remaining councils. Join us and sign the petition here now!”

The following is the link to Peter Primrose’s petition:

http://www.nswlabor.org.au/ditch_amalgamations?
utm_campaign=120417_council&utm_medium
=email&utm_source=nswlabor