Three tears

Image: New Parliament House, Hobart - for Victoria and Tasmania. Unicameral and covering both State legislature & the former local government

Sir,

Most people seem to agree that we are over-governed  by the three tiers of government.  What to do?

We could shrug off the Federal Government by seceding from the Commonwealth.  That might be costly.

We could amalgamate with, say, Victoria.  Might be hard to get our parliament to vote for that one.

Or we could abolish local councils instead of amalgamating them.  This is easier constitutionally,  and the population of Tasmania is smaller than many local government jurisdictions  on the mainland.  We would thereby get rid of one level of bureaucracy,  and at the same time free up a large number of talented people to augment our overstretched state government.  There would be no loss of access to our politicians,  and the intimate relationship between our councillors and the ratepayers is going to evaporate with the council amalgamations anyway.

Richard McCure    Sandy Bay 2017