After almost 12 months since being elected, the Minister for Local Government, Ron Hoenig is continuing to demonstrate that the Minns Labor Government has no direction or vision for New South Wales.
During the Minister’s Budget Estimates hearing, he revealed another backflip, this time on the IPART review of the Council Financial Model in NSW he announced just four weeks ago.
The IPART review is still open for submissions on terms of reference, it was envisaged once terms of reference were agreed upon the review would take at least 12 months to conduct the review, yet instead of shortening the timeframe of the review, the Minister has detailed plans for an Upper House Committee on the matter.
“I have sought to find a chair who will take the poison chalice,” Minister Hoenig said today on the financial sustainability of Local Government in NSW.
Shadow Minister for Local Government, Wendy Tuckerman said that since Labor came to power, Councils across NSW have been in financial and operational turmoil under a Minister who continues to contemplate rather than take considered action.
“The Minister, after 12 months, is still considering what direction to take – meanwhile the Local Government sector is left languishing, with no direction or support for the sector, which is burdened with uncertainty across the state – inaction from Labor is impacting communities,” Mrs Tuckerman said.
“You have an IPART review which is still deciding its terms of reference and detailing that they will take another 12 months to undertake the actual review – and the Minister’s solution is another review entirely, a backflip all within a month of the original announcement.
Questions were raised in estimates about his choice in selecting the Upper House Committee for the review and why it wasn’t discussed with the portfolio committee. A pointed question was whether the Minister was hoping to achieve a certain political outcome with the upper house review, a point he denied.
“With the amount of Special Rate Variation requests across NSW, the Labor Government needs to address the bill shock being faced by communities across NSW.
The Minister stated he continues to advocate to the Federal Government for increased revenue for the Local Government Sector but highlighted the considerable tension between the Federal Labor Government and the NSW Government on the increase in the taxation income for both the state and the Local Government sector.
The Local Government Sector is looking for leadership, the Minister needs to turn off cruise control and start driving change.