LGAQ report - Beattie lying again - Councils won't collapse ...

Excerpt from Sydney Morning Herald:

Councils won't collapse, claims a report

17 June 2007

Claims by the state government that Queensland councils would collapse without amalgamations are baseless, according to a report commissioned by the peak local government authority.

The report, prepared for the Local Government Association by international receivers and administrators McGrath Nicol, examines financial sustainability reviews of councils undertaken by the Queensland government.

The reviews deemed 21 Queensland councils to be financially weak, and prompted the government to announce sweeping changes to councils.

It set up a Queensland Local Government Reform Commission to consider council boundary changes before the local government elections in March 2008.

It is now sorting through more than 36,000 submissions to its review, before reporting back in August.

The plans have been met with anger in rural and regional Queensland, where people are strongly opposed to small councils being amalgamated.

The McGrath Nicol report states that none of the councils rated "weak" by the government is insolvent.

"Similarly, the forecasts provided to us indicate the councils reviewed by us are unlikely to become insolvent within the forecast period (two to 10 years)," the report says.

Local Government Association of Queensland president Paul Bell said the report showed claims by Premier Peter Beattie of councils "going to the wall" were not true.

"I call on Premier Beattie to rethink his position on the need for forced amalgamations," Mr Bell said in a statement.

"If he cannot substantiate this need, then he should state the real reasons behind the rush to forcibly amalgamate councils."

See - Councils won't collapse.