Paul Starick: Local government reform in South Australia stuck in fax machine era

Mobile phones were newfangled tech and offices had fax machines the last time SA council mergers were planned, Paul Starick writes.

Mobile phones were newfangled technology and every office had a fax machine when the most recent substantial local government reform in South Australia was set out.

Back in mid-1995, a radical blueprint commissioned by the Liberal government of the day urged the number of SA councils be slashed from 118 to 34 within two years, creating 11 metropolitan councils and 23 in the country.

Today, there are 68 councils in SA, including 19 in greater metropolitan Adelaide. There is a strong case for halving that number to 34 – as recommended 27 years ago by a ministerial advisory group.

The Advertiser front page of July 26, 1995

Since the mid-1990s, a global communication and automation revolution has transformed private enterprise, which has had to become more efficient to survive and prosper.

But, apart from some major mergers in the late 1990s, this efficiency wave has not swept over local councils.

Generally, they prefer to have highly paid chief executives overseeing the sharing of some services, such as waste collection. Councillors are elected by a handful of voters – usually a couple of hundred at best. This is despite the forlorn pleading before every council election – the latest polls kick off in mid-October – that voting can make a huge difference by helping make your community a better place to live.

It is worth revisiting the argument for mergers, presented in July, 1995, by the Ministerial Advisory Group on Local Government.

Ratepayers were to save an estimated $150m (imagine the savings in today’s money) and almost 800 elected council positions would have been scrapped in the most sweeping local government reform in 65 years. The changes were to have been in place for elections in May, 1997.

Even with the financial savings, the reform was forecast to result in reduced rates or improved services.

Premier Peter Malinauskas in his office at the State Administration Centre. Picture: Naomi Jellicoe

Among the thorniest issues were proposed staff cuts of 5 per cent – hotly opposed by unions – and the difficulty of drawing up new council boundaries.

These will be among the challenges ahead of Premier Peter Malinauskas as he seeks to use the power of his office to trigger gradual change more than a quarter of a century later.

Times change. The argument for amalgamation is, if anything, stronger but the political degree of difficulty remains high.