A strong ‘yes’: Inner west residents vote to demerge

The residents of Sydney’s inner west have sent a strong indication to the state government they want their amalgamated council split back into three municipalities, following a clear majority “yes” vote to demerge.

As well as electing their new representatives, Inner West Council residents were polled at Saturday’s ballot on whether they wanted to revert to the former Marrickville, Ashfield and Leichhardt councils, with more than 61 per cent of the votes so far counted calling for de-amalgamation.

Marrickville filmmaker Mandy King and Fabio Cavadini (pictured with their neighbour’s dog, Ella) are voting for Inner West Council to demerge into its previous three councils.Credit: Janie Barrett

Marrickville filmmaker Mandy King was one of those to vote for the resumption of her old municipality, saying she had noticed a decline in the quality of services and community consultation regarding projects and the built environment following the 2016 merger.

“I think it’s important that local people have the best representation they can and that’s where I think a smaller local council makes the difference; there we have better avenues for issues to be addressed,” Ms King said.

The result is so far made up of 17,600 votes from the NSW Electoral Commission’s iVote system – with about 115,000 postal and pre-poll votes yet to be tallied.

It is expected to cause a headache for the state government if it remains in the affirmative. This year it fended off two other proposals to demerge amid persistent community criticism over the mandatory process that sparked huge rate rises, including in the inner west.

Local Government Minister Shelley Hancock is empowered to make a final decision.Credit: Bianca De Marchi

The result is not binding, and will need to be endorsed by the new council before a proposal is sent to the Boundaries Commission; then NSW Local Government Minister Shelley Hancock, who is empowered to make the final decision.

Independent Stanmore ward councillor Pauline Lockie, who looks set to retain her spot on the council, said she had people coming up to her before the election who felt strongly either way on whether to demerge.

“Seeing that result coming through for a strong ‘yes’ is a sign people have been clearly unhappy in the way that the merger hasn’t worked,” Cr Lockie said.

“If the current numbers continue, it’s not a little ‘yes’; it’s a strong ‘yes’ result, so it would be quite something if the minister turned her back on the desires of the community.”

The Greens, who appear to have won at least five spots on the council, made de-amalgamation one of the key tenets of their campaign, arguing there had been cost blowouts, a decline in services and in effective local representation.

Labor, which is tracking to hold a majority footing on the council, has committed to abiding by the result.

Former Labor mayor Darcy Byrne has previously criticised mergers as a costly exercise from which the government’s promised savings never materialised.

He declined to comment on his position at this stage of the count, but said, “We’ve said throughout the campaign that we will listen to the community and support the majority position on demerger.

“Our priority is making the council work for local people, regardless of what the NSW government does on amalgamation,” he said.

A report commissioned by the council this year said the disadvantages of demerging would be high initial costs for staff redundancies and re-establishing the old councils, potential rate increases and the loss of the ability to undertake large-scale projects.

Former NSW deputy premier John Barilaro voiced his disappointment at Mrs Hancock’s earlier refusal to demerge Cootamundra-Gundagai Regional and Snowy Valleys councils, in the state’s south-west, saying the policy hadn’t worked.

Mrs Hancock based her decision on the lack of a “clear consensus on the issue” in two reports by the Boundaries Commission, despite a majority of commissioners recommending in their report on Snowy Valleys for that council to be allowed to be split in two.

As part of the 2016 mergers, the NSW government set up the Stronger Communities Fund to assist councils through the process. However, a parliamentary inquiry found this year that 95 per cent of the funds went to councils in Coalition seats in the lead-up to the 2019 state election.

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