Tasmanian Premier Jeremy Rockliff warned to rule out ‘suicidal’ forced council mergers

Tasmanian Liberal Premier Jeremy Rockliff faces a growing internal battle over his signature structural reform policy, with growing demands he rule out forced council amalgamations or risk an electoral bloodbath.

Tasmanian Premier Jeremy Rockliff is under increasing pressure to back away from forcing his signature reform of local government. Picture: Chris Kidd

Tasmanian Liberal Premier Jeremy Rockliff faces a growing internal battle over his signature structural reform policy, with growing demands he rule out forced council amalgamations or risk an electoral bloodbath.

Opposition to forced council mergers is gaining strength within the Liberal Party, with branches in revolt and senior figures telling The Australian leaving open compulsory amalgamations is “political suicide”.

The issue was cited as a key reason for the collapse of the Liberals’ Northeast branch, while Liberal-aligned mayors are increasingly speaking out publicly against the reforms.

One Liberal MP, Jane Howlett, did not respond to questions about whether she had told a community meeting she would cross the floor to vote against forced mergers.

Questioned about The Australian’s Northeast branch story, cabinet minister Felix Ellis on Thursday suggested Liberal members threatening to quit over forced mergers should hold fire as they might not proceed.

“The government is working closely with local communities because we want to hear their opinions,” Mr Ellis told ABC radio’s Leon Compton program.

“So I wouldn’t have thought – particularly given that there’s been no decision made around that – that people ought to be making those kind of decisions.”

Tasmania has 29 local councils, some of which have struggled financially, and reform is strongly supported by the property and business sectors.

Previous Liberal premier Peter Gutwein had promised not to compel council mergers, recommended by a recent government inquiry that flagged new boundary options.

Mr Rockliff has given no such guarantees and several local mayors – including those with strong Liberal links such as Greg Howard in Dorset and Greg Kieser in George Town – have voiced concerns or outright hostility.

The issue is also antagonising some grassroots Liberal members in rural and remote areas who fear losing representation if they are swallowed up by larger councils.

Mr Rockliff, who declined to add to Mr Ellis’s comments, has trumpeted amalgamations as a key structural reform of his ­“reformist” government.

However, some senior party figures believe it is electoral ­lunacy to pick fights with communities – some in key Liberal areas – ahead of a state election.

They believe that by leaving open the prospect of forced mergers, the government is severely damaging its standing and it should instead shut down the escalating revolt by ruling them out.

Labor is capitalising on the discontent by promising no forced mergers if it wins office.

“No wonder Rockliff’s MPs are quitting and at least one Liberal member of the Legislative Council is openly saying they’ll cross the floor on the issue,” said Labor local government spokesman Luke Edmunds.

”Jeremy Rockliff’s secretive and dodgy approach to the state’s top job has been a disaster.”

Mr Edmunds said Labor agreed with comments made in 2019 by Mr Gutwein, who said: “The government continues to not support forced council amalgamations as we believe amalgamations stand the best chance of success when processes are voluntary and have support of their communities.”

That is the kind of statement some within the Liberal Party want Mr Rockliff to now repeat, particularly as an election – due by May 2025 – could come any time because of government reliance on two Liberal defectors.

A March report by the government’s “Future of Local Government Review” clearly backed forced mergers and foreshadowed potential changes to each local government “catchment”.

The review board, due to hand down its final report in September, concluded “significant structural changes must be at the centre of any effective reform package”.

It warned: “The scale and extent of the consolidation needed to deliver significantly better services will, unfortunately, not occur on a purely voluntary basis within the current framework.

“Reform must be designed collaboratively but, once settled, implementation must be mandated by the state government.”

“From what the sector itself has told us, achieving greater scale is essential to unlocking and building improved and more consistent capability.”