Mr. Templeman questions the Minister for Local Government about the cost of local government reform, alleging a lack of cost understanding. The Minister responds by outlining the process for determining costs and the role of the advisory board.

AnsweredQoN 260Legislative Assembly
Asked
9 April 2014
Portfolio
Local Government

QuestionView source ↗

DEPARTMENT OF LOCAL GOVERNMENT AND COMMUNITIES — AMALGAMATIONS —
FREEDOM OF INFORMATION REQUEST
260. Mr D.A. TEMPLEMAN to the Minister
for Local Government:
I ask a supplementary question. Is
it true that the minister has a basis for local government reform but no idea
of how much it will cost the Western Australian taxpayers?

AnswerView source ↗

Does the member for Mandurah have an idea of how much it will
cost?
Mr D.A. Templeman :
You are doing the reform!
Mr
A.J. SIMPSON : Okay!
Mr
D.A. Templeman : You are doing the reform, you goose! You are doing the
reform, and you say that there are going to be sustainable councils, and you
have no idea of what it will cost! Give us the six and we will tell you!
The
SPEAKER : Member for Mandurah!
Mr
A.J. SIMPSON : The toolkit has been set up for this model purposely to find
out what the costs will be. We have a fair bit of an idea about the costings.
The final part of the jigsaw puzzle is what the final map will be once the
advisory board has done its work to get —
Ms
J.M. Freeman : The jigsaw puzzle?
Mr
A.J. SIMPSON : What I mean is where the boundary lines come together. One of
the biggest problems with the reform process is that one local government says
that it wants more or less of the other one. But, as we know, when we talk
about a jigsaw, it has to come together to make sure that both are sustainable
and not just one on each side of the boundary. When the advisory board comes
back with a report, and we have done the toolkit work to work out the full
costings, we will be fully ready to make sure we can support local governments
for a new era and make sure they are more sustainable in the future.

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