Scrap the state: NSW councils
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Updated
Councils across New South Wales have backed a push by Lake Macquarie Council to abolish the State Government.
The councils' motion, calling for a two-tier government system, was yesterday passed unchallenged at the Local Government Association Conference in Broken Hill.
But Lake Macquarie Deputy Mayor Barry Johnston says a two-tier system of government makes more sense.
"It costs the Australian people over $2 billion per year to have the three levels of government, and there is a lot of duplication between State and Federal Government," he said.
"We have a State Minister for Health, we have a Federal Minister for Health, we have a State Minister for Transport, we have a Federal Minister for Transport."
But Councillor Johnston says he doubts it will lead to change anytime soon.
"The way the constitution works is the State Governments have to vote themselves out of power, because they were there before the Federal Government," he said.
"To only end up with two-tiers of government we've got to find some way of getting the State Governments to decide that they don't wish to be there any more and that is going to be extremely difficult."
Rate pegging push
This morning on local radio, the president of the Local Government Association in NSW, Genia McCaffrey, renewed the call to abolish rate pegging, a system that allows the State Government to cap council rate increases.
Councillor McCaffrey says NSW is the only state in Australia that still has rate pegging.
"After 20 years of rate pegging, councils are really cash-strapped," she said.
"Each year, our costs go up more than our income. Each year we're almost running at permanent deficit."
NSW has the lowest rates in Australia, but Councillor McCaffrey says that does not matter if the standards of services offered are below national standards.
"We believe that as an elected level of our government, we should be able to have a conversation with our communities about what level of service we want in our community," she said.
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