Steve Irons (Swan, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I am pleased to inform the House that there was a great result for City of South Perth ratepayers last weekend, with the region's local government amalgamations referendum returning a majority of no votes. I have been vocal in my opposition to the Western Australian state government's idea to cut the number of councils from 30 to 16 by making local government regions amalgamate. Thankfully, the City of South Perth and the Town of Victoria Park's petition for a referendum was approved on the question, 'Should the City of South Perth and Town of Victoria Park be abolished and amalgamated to form a new local government?'

I congratulate all those who took the opportunity to have their say, and in particular those, like Cecilia Brooke, who led a grassroots campaign to oppose the amalgamation. Approximately 54 per cent of issued votes were returned, including informal votes, and there were 50.8 per cent eligible votes.

Ratepayers in the City of South Perth and, by extension, the Town of Victoria Park, along with ratepayers in East Fremantle and Kwinana, have sent a very clear message to the state government that they do not want to amalgamate. I am also aware of a number of other councils who are vehemently opposed to amalgamations but unfortunately were not successful in their calls for a referendum, including the City of Canning in my electorate of Swan. If this is not a wake-up call for the state government, then WALGA's withdrawal of support for reform earlier today should be. I now call on Premier Barnett to accept the ratepayers' overwhelming rejection of amalgamations and to scrap the reform process for all metropolitan councils who do not wish to amalgamate. A very good reason for this is that Labor initiated it and it is a bad idea.