Federation mayor downplays demerger talk as council review backed

Councillors on Friday June 9, 2023 all backed a motion to engage a consultant to "undertake an independent peer-reviewed business case study on the financial sustainability of Federation Council and the advantages/disadvantages of amalgamation".

The decision came at a packed extraordinary meeting and followed calls from the Federation Ratepayers lobby group for such a move.

However, councillor David Fahey said his moving of the motion was not sparked by external pressure.

"I've brought this notice of motion...not because of any lobby group but because it is the right time to do it, it has merit," Cr Fahey said.

"We've done a lot of hard work in the last especially 12 months...(and) we need to know if the decisions we've made are correct."

It is expected the review would cost around $130,000 but how it is funded and whether it is part of the 2023-24 budget will not be decided until this month's ordinary council meeting on June 27.

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The motion also suggested the council consider engaging Professor Joseph Drew, who authored a report on the business case for demerging Snowy Valleys Council.

However, Cr Fahey stressed that his push for a review should not be read as a precursor to a demerger of Federation, which was formed in 2016 through the union of Corowa and Urana shires.

"If I was after a demerger that (motion) would say 'demerge, deamalgamate' , the fact is yes I want to look at where we started, look where we are now and look where we're going in the future," he said.

Cr Bourke said Mulwala, Rand, Oaklands and Howlong were "very different" and he hoped they could all contribute to the review.

"I would like to capture representation from all those communities so that we can thrash out the issues, their desires and wants, so that finally I think we can pull this whole council together and not have to talk about demergers, mergers et cetera and go forward as one Federation Council community," Cr Bourke said.

Federation Ratepayers chairman David Bott welcomed the council's decision, which comes as the NSW Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal is to soon rule on an application by the council to hike rates beyond the set ceiling.

"It's a motion that we've been requesting for just on 12 months now and we welcome it strongly," Mr Bott said.

"We're very pleased to see the leadership that's been shown in the chamber by the mayor."

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