The new Deputy Premier … a breath of fresh air?

Chairman of Cabonne’s Amalgamation No Thank You (ANTY) group, Jock Haynes, and its one of its prominent spokespeople, Marj Bollinger, have welcomed the opportunity to meet with recently appointed Deputy Premier John Barilaro last Friday to bring to his attention and provide documentation as to why he should seriously consider standing up for Cabonne to remain a stand-alone council.

“The meeting left a feeling of fresh air compared to the negativity and rejection we have been experiencing from those who have gone before,” said Marj.

Jock Haynes said: “Mr Barilaro did not confirm whether Cabonne would be forced to amalgamate pending further court action, but confirmed that no merger would proceed unless it had first been through him, and that he was now much more aware of the reasons why Cabonne has fought so hard to stand alone, and would take up the issue with Mr Toole.

“He said he now has a much greater understanding of the uniqueness of Cabonne and how it specialises in managing small towns and villages at a local government level, and also understands how the inherent flaws in the small-town-jobs quarantee mean that the intent of the legislation, whilst admirable, may be overridden by a mega-council.

“He said he was happy to look at alternate options if there are options out there — one might be to exclude Cabonne from the merger. This led to a discussion around the benefits for both the residents of Cabonne and the Nationals (from a political level) of Cabonne being excluded from the proposed merger.

“When ask the question as to what Blayney wanted, we assured him that would be for the residents of Blayney to decide not for us to say.”

After repeated refusals from Premier Mike Baird, former deputy premier Troy Grant and Local Government Minister Paul Toole for meetings in the past year, Marj said: “Mr Barilaro had assured the group he would speak with them again. People made their voices heard through the ballot box and that has to be a big wake-up call.”

Marj also said: “From Mr Barilaro’s comment that before a forced merger was taken to the Governor it would have to come to him first, we concluded that he’s the one to stop it going ahead.

“We are looking forward to the opportunity of continuing to work closely with Mr Barilaro in the near future to deliver a favourable outcome for the residents of Cabonne.”

Based on media release issued by ANTY.

John Barilaro ...