Council Amalgamation = less people power

Our system of government can't be called true democracy when most of us only get to have a say in public process once every three years or so in elections. Given that massive flaw in representative democracy, nowhere is government more particpatory (outside of an anarchist commune!) than in local government. Most of the community realises that - in local government you are more likely to be able to have an effect on decision making than in a bigger, more distant government.

A good example is perhaps the Leichardt Shire Council in central coastal Queensland. Leichardt Council encompasess Yeppoon as it's major centre and lies adjacent to Rockahmpton Shire Council further inland. During recent years Leichardt has been dubbed the 'Peace Shire' due to the number of peace advocates that have emerged from the community in response to the escalation of U.S. invovled war manourvers in their back yards. During the 2007 Peace Convergence the local community, supported by hundreds of vistors from around Australia, succeeded in making a great public show of their desires for the community - a non-militarised, environmentally and personally safe and non-toxic environment for humans and the unique wildlife of the area. They convinced the Leichardt Shire Council to vote in an anti-nuclear policy and the mayor of Yeppoon, Bill Ludwig, agreed that he would rather see their natural areas used for tourism as a national park than war games.

If council amalgamation goes ahead, Leichardt will be subsumed by the pro-military Rockhampton Council. The bombs will continue to go off in the backyards of the residents of Yeppoon and Byfield and it is unlikely that they will ever get that water testing they have been promised by the Leichardt Council. They will basically be silenced on an issue that directly affects them by a council that does not live with the effects of their decisions.

This is just a small example of how environmental and social justice at a local level could be undermined by expanding council jurisdiction by elimination of the smaller ones. It has not been made clear how the decisons over which councils will be eliminated has been made, no doubt some political interference and manipulation at a state level is implicated. Local council have shown their affilation to the needs of the local community by their opposition to things like the Traveston Dam, uranium mining and war games to name just three.

Although Premier Beattie states that the merger will eliminate the 'duplication of services' and thus save everyone money - it's obvious from the backlash that he's made a big mistake to try and take people's power away from them. Hell, even Kevin Rudd agrees it's a bad political move. People in smaller communities, unlike us townies, are used to having some power in decision making in their local area. After all, despite the representative nature of councils, those mayors in small councils have to live with their decisions. In big councils like Brisbane, Mayor Newman has no idea what's going on in my backyard, and if he does it probably in direct oppostion to what the people in my street want (we didn't want the North-South Bypass Tunnel making our lives near Ipswich Rd even more traffic filled, polluted and noisy. And although we do want a community garden, it's unlikely that Newman would let us have one).

Government is a difficult issue to live with in an unrepresentative democracy, but local councils are the closest thing to participatory as government gets. We have to start somewhere - we need to defend them.