LOCAL GOVERNMENT BOUNDARY ADJUSTMENTS

The Hon. R.L. BROKENSHIRE (14:49): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking the Minister for State/Local Government Relations a question regarding public initiated boundary adjustment proposals in local government.

Leave granted.

The Hon. R.L. BROKENSHIRE: The minister may not have had a chance to see some documentation sent to him, the local member and myself from the Geranium Ratepayers Association. Briefly, the Geranium Ratepayers Association initiated a public submission to the Boundary Adjustment Facilitation Panel. They wrote in a letter to us:

We believe that Section 28 of the Act does not give sufficient weight to the will of ratepayers in the Affected Area who are in support of the boundary adjustment. In this instance, an overwhelming 90 per cent of ratepayers in the Affected Area are in support of the boundary adjustment proposed within the Public Initiated Submission.

It also states:

This support was reinforced by the number and content of letters lodged in response to the Panel's 1 May 2010 advertisement calling for public submissions. As Ms Wagstaff states in her report, 55 submissions were received in favour of the proposal, with just 12 actual submissions lodged in opposition (a further 18 were from letters prepared by Council for attendees at a public meeting to sign).

In concluding my explanation, these constituents believe that there was too much focus and opportunity on the council whereby these constituents wanted to move to an adjoining council. Therefore, my questions are:

1. Will the minister look into these concerns by constituents from Geranium and associated areas as a matter of concern, particularly if the allegations are accurate with respect to insufficient scrutiny by the panel?

2. How much money does it cost for this panel to operate, and how many boundary adjustment considerations have they made since the beginning of the act?

3. Does the minister and his government support the principle of public initiated submissions whereby the majority of the people want to shift councils having that opportunity in principle?

The Hon. B.V. FINNIGAN (Minister for Industrial Relations, Minister for State/Local Government Relations, Minister for Gambling) (14:52): The Local Government Act establishes an independent body, the Boundary Adjustment Facilitation Panel, to investigate and make recommendations on proposals for council boundary changes. The panel consists of four members. I am not aware offhand of the cost of the panel. I do not believe that there are a huge number of requests coming through as a general rule, but they certainly do happen from time to time. In relation to the one that the honourable member has raised, is he talking about the Southern Mallee and Coorong matter?

The Hon. R.L. Brokenshire: Yes.

The Hon. B.V. FINNIGAN: That has been finalised by the panel. There were a group of eligible electors who sought to have the council boundary adjusted between the Southern Mallee council and The Coorong District Council. There was an independent consultant's report and the panel reviewed the submissions it had received and concluded that they were not convinced that the affected area was less served than other parts of the Southern Mallee council.

The panel concluded that residents of the area used services and businesses and were involved in recreational activities in the Southern Mallee, Coorong and other surrounding council areas. As such, the panel was not convinced that the affected areas of community interests lay primarily within the Coorong council boundaries.

The panel recognised that three landholdings crossed the boundary of the two councils, but that in itself was not sufficient to warrant a boundary alteration of the scope proposed. The panel resolved not to proceed with a proposal in response to the public initiated submission. As I indicated, the panel is independent. I can request, as minister, that they consider the decision that they have made, but I have not chosen to do that on this occasion. I had a look at the report that the panel had produced and the considerations they made, and I was satisfied that they had acted appropriately in coming to the decision that they did.

I would highlight that it is an independent panel with four members: Margaret Wagstaff, who the honourable member mentioned, who is the chair; Carol Procter; and two LGA nominees in James Maitland and Gillian Aldridge, who are both mayors. The panel is independent, and I was satisfied that the report—

The Hon. T.J. Stephens: Margaret Wagstaff is independent? Give me a break.

The Hon. B.V. FINNIGAN: The Hon. Mr Stephens casts doubt on the integrity of the panel members. I have no reason to believe that they are anything other than independent. I indicate to the honourable member that I am not sure that the government would even have an interest in which council area people reside in. Obviously we want people to be best served by the council appropriate to where they live, so the act sets up this independent panel to make these sorts of judgements. I cannot see why the government would have a position on whether people are in the Southern Mallee or the Coorong council. We want people to be well served by their councils, and the panel is there to make the judgement in relation to a request to change council area.

I am satisfied that the panel followed the correct procedure and came to the judgement it did in all fairness, having honestly and conscientiously considered the submissions put before it. In relation to the honourable member's final point, I certainly do not intend to make any changes to the way people are able to make applications to the panel to consider a boundary adjustment.