10th September 2007A Senate Inquiry has backed the Federal Government’s policy of offering to pay for local Queensland councils to conduct plebiscites on the contentious issue of shire amalgamations.
Nationals Senate Leader Ron Boswell says the report, tabled today, shows that the “Coalition Government’s action to deliver a say to people concerned about local government amalgamations is timely and absolutely justified”.
“Labor’s attempts to silence people on this is just the beginning,” Sen Boswell said.
“This week has seen the stacking of Labor Union mates on the unelected Transitional Committees that set up the new merged Councils.
“Council employees are soon expected to be dragooned into a statutory body for the AWU to feed on.
“This is the type of ‘let’s reward the unions’ strategy that comes into play when Labor has power.”
The Senate Inquiry has been previously dismissed by the State Labor Government as a hypocritical political point-scoring exercise by the Coalition.
SOURCE: Queensland Country Life.