Serial candidate’s merge call

If you want council amalgamation, then you will have to vote for it, explains Simon Behrakis

HOBART, Glenorchy, Clarance and Kingborough councils should amalgamate, says Hobart deputy mayor and alderman candidate Simon Behrakis.

Mr Behrakis is hoping third time is lucky after tilts at the State House of Assembly and Legislative Council earlier this year.

He said for too long Tasmania had been over-governed and says Greater Hobart should be represented by one dedicated, forward-looking council.

“The community supports amalgamations because it just makes sense,” he said.

“As the world has changed these four councils have become more inward looking.”

Talking point,

FOR too long Tasmania has been ridiculously overgoverned. I’m sure you’ve heard it all before — 29 councils, 263 councillors and aldermen, all for a population of 525,000 Tasmanians.

In and around Hobart it’s almost as bad.

The Greater Hobart area has four councils and 48 councillors and aldermen for a just over 200,000 people.

That’s why I’m calling for the Hobart, Glenorchy, Clarence and Kingborough councils to amalgamate.

A January 2017 report prepared for the four Greater Hobart City councils themselves found that the benefits to the greater Hobart area if Clarence, Kingborough, Glenorchy and Hobart amalgamated would be in the vicinity of $392 million over 20 years. That’s a staggering number. What possible reason could councils have to reject an amalgamation that would deliver nearly $400 million worth of benefits to residents of the greater Hobart area?

Aldermen and councillors need to stop feathering their own nests and serving their own interests, and focus on delivering the best possible outcomes for their ratepayers, who they are elected to serve.

Everyone in the greater Hobart area deserves quality council services and affordable rates.

Unfortunately, it’s a lottery based on which council area you live in.

For example, some people on Risdon Rd have their rubbish collected weekly, while some living on the other side of the road have it collected fortnightly because the boundary between Glenorchy and Hobart runs down the middle of the street. It’s a joke. The Hobart City Council was established in 1852, Clarence in 1860 and Glenorchy in 1864. Kingborough Council is the relative newcomer, having been set up in 1907.

And the structures of these councils haven’t changed much in the more than a century since they were set up.

As the world has changed around them, these four councils have become more and more inward looking.

Petty politics and silly squabbles have taken over from serious debates about the future of Hobart because the focus of these councils is so small and so limited.

It’s about time that as a community we demanded more than this from the four councils that cover greater Hobart.

I note that recently the Mayor of the Derwent Valley Council called for an elector poll on amalgamation as part of the upcoming local government elections in October.

Frankly, that would be a waste of time.

The time for debating whether or not amalgamations are needed has long passed.

The community is overwhelmingly in support of amalgamations because it just makes sense.

The stumbling block is the councils themselves.

It is also widely known and accepted that the effects from policy decisions (or the failure to make decisions) of any of these four councils impacts on the entire Greater Hobart Area. This further highlights how interconnected these municipalities are.

Amalgamating into one Greater Hobart Council allows for a singular vision, and policies which co-ordinate and serve the entire city, as opposed to the current arrangement with minimal coordination largely due to competing interests.

Every one of these councils has had trouble with its elected councillors and aldermen. Some more than others. But imagine if we had an amalgamated council that combined the passion and commitment of Kristy Johnston, the wit and wisdom of Doug Chipman, the razor sharp analytical mind of Dean Winter and new blood in the form of the next generation of alderman and councillors of whose ranks I hope to join in October.

It would help lift local government’s gaze from tantrums about Christmas decorations to more substantive issues of what we want our great city to look like in coming years.

That’s why I’m calling on the people of Hobart, Glenorchy, Kingborough and Clarence to support candidates who, like me, believe that the greater Hobart area should be represented by one dedicated, contemporary and forward-looking council.

We can’t sit back and expect someone else to fix our problems for us. We need to stand up as a community and do it ourselves and that’s what we must do at the October local government election. Simon Behrakis is a candidate for deputy mayor and alderman on Hobart City Council.