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If we're truly looking for a better Local Govt. model for Tasmania there are some borders that are irrelevant and they must be removed if we to have a Local Govt model that fits the 21st Century understandings.
None of this is rocket science and you do not need to be a Rhodes Scholar to get your head around it. You simply need to be committed to 21st C standards of accountability and the changes that'll get us there.
Ald. Janie Finlay has posted the current map of Tasmanian Local Govt. jurisdictions on Facebook. So, if this looks it might be a run up to a tilt at the Mayors job, well it might be. However, it does open up a front for a discussion!
When you ask what Local Govt. might look like in 10 years you to think change. What's really needed is a commitment to change, 21st C change and change well away from the status quo. Firstly, that'd be change that delivers ACCOUNTABILITY. But, real change would leave so, so, so many elected representatives out of the loop because of the demonstrated current lack of accountability.
If we're actually interested in the future just look around us and be real about what is being contributed to a 21st C future and we're almost through the second decade.
Mark Bishop has said on Facebook "3 municipal councils statewide would still be too many given our population, but it might work on a statewide basis if the boundaries/ areas had the same population numbers with a 'handicap bonus' for extra land area managed."
Basil Fitch has said via Facebook, paraphrased, IF we're really serious we would be doing two things right now..... we'd be holding Councils to account ...... and we'd be working assiduously for a changed local Govt. model for Tasmania. ... However, Tasmania's hapless ratepayers are unlikely to see very much of anything that might be mistaken for change given Council bureaucracies self interest in maintaining the status quo and especially so with sections 62 and 65 in the Act remaining in place.
A great many Tasmanians seem to have lost faith with Tasmania's Local Govt. model. Some (many?) believe that it is broken and broken well beyond repair. All too many aldermen and councilors are unwilling to be held to account and are liable to have an allergic reaction if "accountability" is mentioned in their company.
Likewise, many among the operational cum management people seem to hold ratepayers in contempt the higher up the corporate ladder one goes. Along with them many of the elected representatives are with them spouting rhetoric like "we've been elected to make decisions". Well yes, but not in isolation.
How do we move forward? Well we do NOT attempt to patch up the Local Govt Act 1993 as it is it's outdatedness that has got us to where we are ... IN DEEPLY TROUBLING TIMES ... Think Huon, Glenorchy, Derwent Spring Bay, Southern Midlands, Launceston looming etc. etc...
Note: Edited from various sources on Facebook by Treva Alen
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