Survey reveals Tasmanians think 29 councils is too many — and some mayors agree

There are too many councils in Tasmania and those that can merge, should, according to those that matter most — Tasmanians.

Three of greater Hobart’s new mayors – Dean Winter, of Kingborough, Kristie Johnston, of Glenorchy and Anna Reynolds, of Hobart – are open to council amalgamations. Picture: MATHEW FARRELL

THERE are too many councils in Tasmania and those that can merge, should, according to those that matter most — Tasmanians.

Almost 80 per cent of Tasmanians in an exclusive Mercury survey believe there are too many councils on the Apple Isle, with 83 per cent of respondents saying council amalgamations should happen where possible.

More than 1300 people shared their views on local government in the Future Tassie survey.

Kingborough Mayor Dean Winter says the 29 councils should be reduced to about nine, but amalgamation required serious advocacy from the business community for any change to happen.

“My personal view is 29 councils is probably about 20 too many,” Cr Winter said.

“Tasmanian local government boundaries are often arbitrary and fail to appropriately delineate between communities with different service level requirements.

“The voluntary amalgamation process that we have seen over the last four years has not worked, but I can’t see any appetite from either side of state politics to force changes.”

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Tasmanian Chamber of Commerce and Industry chief executive Michael Bailey, who last year proposed Tasmania’s 29 councils should downsize to three, said Tasmanians deserved better in their local governance.

“What’s frustrating is we have a State Government without the fortitude to take it on,” he said.

“In the corridors of parliament, people will often whisk me aside, regardless of their political parties, and say ‘you’re right, amalgamation needs to happen’.

“But when you ask them to take it on they’re like ‘no. no, no’.”

Hobart Lord Mayor Anna Reynolds said while the council had not reached an official agreed position on amalgamation, her personal view was there may be logic in Hobart amalgamating with Glenorchy City Council, but only after a ballot.

“Hobart residents may not be ready to take this step as it would involve spending a lot more of the budget on services and infrastructure in Glenorchy,” she said.

Glenorchy Mayor Kristie Johnston said the council remained open-minded about local government reform, but change ought to be led by the community.

“Doubt must be cast over the validity of the financial modelling contained in the most recent SGS Economics report as it was based on fundamentally flawed financial data provided by [the[ previous council administration,” she said.

About 67 per cent of respondents to the Future Tassie survey said they wanted local government elections to be compulsory.

But 52 per cent did not want local government elections held at polling booths instead of a postal ballot.

Clarence Mayor Doug Chipman said he too believed there were too many councils but rather than moving elections to polling booths, he wanted voters to have the option to vote online.

Voter engagement was strong in the 2018 local government October election with more than 200,000 people voting to give a return rate of 58.73 per cent, the highest since 1996.

Hobart recorded a 61 per cent voter turnout — 10 percentage points higher than in 2014. Cr Winter said a compulsory voting system would probably require a transition to a more traditional polling day election and Ald Reynolds suggested if local government elections felt like all other elections, the high informal vote may be reduced.

A State Government spokeswoman said its position has been consistently clear — that there would be no forced amalgamations.

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