Amalgamation Chairman Jock Haynes and Marj Bollinger welcomed the opportunity to meet with recently appointed Deputy Premier John Barilaro on Friday to bring to his attention and provide documentation as to why he should seriously consider standing up for Cabonne to remain a stand alone Council. Marj Bollinger said, “The meeting was a feeling of fresh air compared to the negativity and rejection we have been experiencing from those who have gone before.”
Jock Haynes said, “Mr Barilaro did not confirm whether Cabonne would be forced to amalgamate pending further court action, but confirmed that no merger would proceed unless it had first been through him, and that he was now much more aware of the reasons why Cabonne has fought so hard to stand alone and would take up the issue with Mr Toole. Mr Barilaro said, “I now have a much
greater understanding of the uniqueness of Cabonne and how it specialises in managing small towns and villages at a local government level and I also understand how the inherent flaws in the small town jobs guarantee mean that the intent of the
legislation, whilst admirable, may be overridden by a mega council.”
He said he was happy to look at alternate options if there are options out there – one might be to exclude Cabonne from the merger.
Marj said, “From Mr Barilaro’s comment that before a forced merger was taken to the Governor it would have to come to him first, we concluded that he’s the one to stop it going ahead.”