![Minister for Local Government Ron Hoenig delivers new plan for Cootamundra-Gundagai Regional Council demerger. Picture by Ash Smith Minister for Local Government Ron Hoenig delivers new plan for Cootamundra-Gundagai Regional Council demerger. Picture by Ash Smith](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/JEQDf2CFmqVGDcvEsZPwEY/a8fbdab7-a942-4776-aa9e-97bb6ce9e038.jpg/r0_0_6000_4000_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
An already-strained merged Riverina council has been told it will have to come up with its own plan forward if it wants to be split back into separate local government areas.
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Minister for Local Government Ron Hoenig met councillors from the Cootamundra-Gundagai Regional Council on Thursday and put forward a new pathway for the organisation's de-amalgamation.
The meeting came after the council's mayor, Charlie Sheahan, issued a plea to the state government last week amid claims the demerger process had fallen by the wayside.
In 2021, the CGRC submitted a business case to the previous Liberal-National government, which was referred to the Local Government Boundaries Commission.
After the Boundaries Commission recommended the shires of Cootamundra and Gundagai be reinstated as separate local government areas, the former government released a roadmap to demerger.
Mr Hoenig said Labor had been unsuccessful in finding a statutory mechanism under the current legislation to enable the de-amalgamation of the councils into two independent and fully functioning entities.
Instead, councillors were on Tuesday told to develop their own detailed implementation plan, which would guide the establishment of two new sustainable local government areas.
![Cootamundra-Gundagai Regional Council mayor Charlie Sheahan and with Member for Cootamundra Steph Cooke. Picture by Ash Smith
Cootamundra-Gundagai Regional Council mayor Charlie Sheahan and with Member for Cootamundra Steph Cooke. Picture by Ash Smith](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/JEQDf2CFmqVGDcvEsZPwEY/f8c49a10-51c4-420a-b9e1-1523a24e2cc5.jpg/r0_0_4530_3020_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
"I'm asking the councillors to set up two different councils and to divide each of those councils and if they are able to do that then I am prepared to proclaim two separate councils so they can go to the polls next year," the minister said.
"It should be a matter for the council and councillors themselves and if they can do that then they can go to the polls next year.
"I don't want the state government any longer to start imposing things on local communities.
"I don't want the state telling councillors what to do, the state has intruded enough into local government."
While confident in the ability of his council, Cr Sheahan said councillors had been left disappointed by the lack of support being offered by the government.
"Councillors are disappointed, it's not really what we wanted," the mayor said.
"We are happy with the structure he has asked us to go down, we were prepared to do that, but what we were seeking was some reassurance in backing us with resources and even costs.
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"It's fine to say 'yes, we have the skills and abilities to deliver this', and I don't disagree with that, but we have been in the process of rectifying a stuff-up in the first place, which was a merged council.
"It took a long battle first of all to restructure that organisation to function properly and deliver for our ratepayers and it took even longer to convince the former government they got it wrong in the policy."
With the resignation of two general managers, as wells as several other staff members in recent weeks, Cr Sheahan feared an already-strained council could crumble.
Nationals Member for Cootamundra Steph Cooke has also expressed her concerns around the wellbeing of the council's staff and the wider communities it serves.
"We have a council here that has been working tirelessly for years and years to make an existing situation work the best for the existing communities, but also to prepare for a demerge. We have staff leaving from this council week in, week out, there is no certainty for them, or for the community more broadly," Ms Cooke said.
"I'm deeply concerned about what this decision means for these communities, but I will not stop fighting until we get this done."
Mr Hoenig said he hoped to see plans presented to him early next year so the demerger could be completed and new councils elected in September 2024.
"This is the only mechanism to enable, under the Act, to allow the demerger to go forward," he said.
When asked if he thought Labor was staying true to its election promise to support the deamalgamation of forcibly-merged councils, Mr Hoenig said he was "giving effect to that policy now".
After the implementation plan to demerge is completed by CGRC, the Boundaries Commission will conduct a public inquiry in the first half of 2024. The community will then be invited to comment on the proposal.
This inquiry will determine if independent Cootamundra and Gundagai councils are capable of operating in a financially sustainable way that will provide necessary infrastructure and services to their respective communities.
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