Minister rejects Booringa and Warroo de-amalgamation
UP-FRONT costs and a dwindling revenue base are the reasons Local Government Minister David Crisafulli gave for rejecting the Booringa and Warroo de-amalgamation proposal.
He met yesterday with the Booringa and Warroo de-amalgamation committees, who had their de-amalgamation requests turned down last month, in Mitchell with senior officials and councillors from Maranoa Regional Council.
The Minister said the first reason they did not succeed was the huge short-term cost of things like IT, and the re-hire of CEOs, managers and councillors in the two former shires was simply unachievable.
"Secondly, a lot of the bids focused on Federal assistance grants, which are falling, Main Roads work, which is dwindling, and for those reasons I didn't think it was a viable prospect five years on after all the costs have occurred," he said.
"But what is a viable prospect is to try and make this work and what I heard around the table was two communities that feel their voice has not been heard adequately."
Mr Crisafulli said Cr Loughnan acknowledged this, and new CEO Julie Reitano understood she needed to turn around the culture.
Mr Crisafulli said he had received criticism that the process was a sham and that the process focused on Noosa and Douglas. He said three other entities had come through the first phase.
"I didn't go in with blinkers on or a pre-determined position," he said.
"But I could not in good faith say that we could create viable entities out of those others who didn't make the next level."
