Greens MP David Shoebridge visits Kiama to discuss merger proposals
Greens NSW MP David Shoebridge says the Kiama community’s anti-merger stance was “being heard in Macquarie Street”.
He also suggested Kiama council host a plebiscite to gauge public opinion on the state government’s proposal to merge Kiama and Shoalhaven councils.
Mr Shoebridge met with Kiama council staff and councillors on Wednesday morning, before addressing the public at The Pavilion.
He told the crowd that Kiama had made a strong case to stand alone, and said “no rational government” would try and merge Kiama and Shoalhaven.
Mr Shoebridge encouraged the Kiama community to seek to be among the potential “pool of political saves”, suggesting a small number of merger proposals throughout the state would likely not go ahead.
Mr Shoebridge said the Kiama community was overwhelmingly against the proposed amalgamation.
“It’s heartening to see, the resilience of the council and the community to stand up.
“There is no doubt at all that the strength of this campaign in Kiama is being felt in Macquarie Street.
“You’d have to be blind to politics not to realise how much passion there is, and realise that it’s a vote changer for residents down here in Kiama.
“This is a political hatchet job that’s being proposed… The only way of responding to it is with political pressure.”
Mr Shoebridge, who has been travelling throughout the state for a number of months discussing the merger issue with various councils, had other fears for the proposed Kiama/Shoalhaven amalgamation.
He believed the municipality was viewed as a “development opportunity waiting for them” by developers and the state government.
“The long-term plan for the government is to break the connection between council and councillors and the community,” he said.
“For Kiama, that means breaking that connection so that there’s more opportunity for development.
“If they can dumb down the environmental planning controls by making Kiama’s planning instruments much more like Shoalhaven’s, if they can remove the connection between the councillors and the residents, they see endless development opportunities for Kiama at a very real cost for the character and the environment of this beautiful part of the state.
“When you’re looking at the Illawarra overall (on the proposed mergers), I don’t think there’s any question that the greatest passion is here in Kiama.”
NSW Opposition leader Luke Foley also visited Kiama recently to show his support for the push to avoid a merger with Shoalhaven.
Kiama Mayor Brian Petschler said council would now look at some of the issues Mr Shoebridge had raised.
“We’ve got a request in to Mr (Greg) Wright, our delegate, so we’ll follow him up in the near future to see whether that’s (a plebiscite) going to happen or not, and then we’ll make a decision at our council meeting next week… whether or not we should hold a plebiscite ourselves if they’re not going to hold one.
“A plebiscite I certainly think would carry a lot of political weight, so we’ll have a look at that.”
The mayor did note that a recent survey has indicated that 92 per cent of Kiama municipality residents oppose the proposal to amalgamate Kiama with Shoalhaven.
IRIS Research surveyed 504 residents via phone.
Shellharbour councillor Peter Moran also attended on Wednesday, saying he was interested in hearing the “depth of feeling” from the Kiama community and the strategies they were utilising to fight the proposed merger.
“Whatever they’re doing, they’re doing it well,” he said.
“They have the ear of the government apparently, and it’s just unfortunate that probably due to past decisions of Shellharbour council, mainly surrounding the (city) hub, the Shellharbour community doesn’t feel the same attachment to their council as the residents of Kiama do.
“The people of Kiama recognise clearly what they stand to lose in a forced amalgamation with a much larger entity.”
Residents wishing to voice their view on the proposed amalgamation of Kiama and Shoalhaven councils have until the end of the month to do so.
Members of the public can make written submissions on the proposal.
Submissions are now open and will close on February 28 at 5pm.
Written submissions can be made at www.councilboundaryreview.nsw.gov.au or by mail: GPO Box 5341, Sydney, NSW, 2001.