City of Nedlands debacle continues, as former premier Colin Barnett revives amalgamation call
Nedlands's council is in tatters after four councillors resigned on Monday, one describing it as "consistently toxic", leaving it without a quorum and unable to function.
Local Government Minister Hannah Beazley intervened on Tuesday, confirming three commissioners will be appointed to run the council, with a full spill of all council positions — including the mayor — expected at the next local government election.
But Ms Argyle told the ABC yesterday the Minister needed to "check her facts" about her Mayoral position being made vacant.
"I'm not up for election for another two years, so I'll still be there — I'm not going anywhere," she said.
Overnight, Ms Argyle posted to Instagram a screenshot of a book cover with the title 'All The Cool Girls Get Fired'.
When asked about this post, Premier Roger Cook said the government has a "responsibility to ensure that we have stable and functional local government right across Western Australia".
Mr Cook was also asked about the possibility of Ms Argyle and the remaining three councillors re-nominating for their positions.
"The people of the City of Nedlands may entertain the idea of re-electing a particular councillor or Mayoral candidate," he said.
"Our responsibility is to ensure that local governments provide stable and functional services to their local communities.
Ms Argyle has been contacted for comment.
Meanwhile, former WA Premier Colin Barnett said there was a "continuing need" to reduce the number of local councils in light of the recent City of Nedlands debacle, but the government said it is not on its agenda.
Former Liberal Premier Mr Barnett thinks the focus needs to turn now to reducing the number of councils across the state to avoid future "embarrassing" incidents.
"There are 137 local councils in Western Australia ... in my opinion, and I think many around even in the local council industry, believe that is far too many," Mr Barnett told the ABC.
He said states such as New South Wales and Victoria operate with less councils — 128 and 79 respectively — despite having populations that are more than double WA's.
"There's a continuing need [to reducing the number] and while I wanted to see amalgamations during my time to bring the number down to at least below 100, I thought that was fairly modest given there were so many small councils," he said.
"There should be reform and it doesn't have to be done overnight, it can be a gradual process in reducing the number."
Mr Barnett failed in his 2015 attempt to slash the number of Perth councils from 30 to 16 with an overhaul of laws and merger of the sector, and his government was booted from office two years later.
While Premier Cook agrees there are too many local government areas in WA, he said the "system that we have is what it is" and indicated it's "not one of [his] government's polices" to reduce the number.
However, he did note the reform the Barnett government tried to get through was "more the execution of their policy rather than the policy itself".
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