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The Act also creates a new process for councils to push for de-amalgamation. It requires the NSW government to refer such a request (with a business case) from a council within 28 days to the NSW Boundaries Commission. However, it does not have to accept the Boundaries Commission recommendation. Pip Hinman believes that the amendments seek to placate popular opposition to the forced amalgamation of several councils, including in the Inner West Council. Hinman is the lead candidate for the Socialist Alliance team who is running for the Inner West Council in Damun (Stanmore) ward. “The bureaucratic process it offers does not change the fact that, ultimately, it is still up to the NSW government to decide to de-amalgamate or not, even if the Boundaries Commission recommends de-amalgamation. ....
The NSW Legislative Council committee released its findings on March 30. The Stronger Communities Fund issued grants to councils affected by the government’s forced amalgamations in 2016. Inquiry chair and NSW Greens MP David Shoebridge said the fund was ”an alarming example of the lack of transparency and accountability” in grant programs and described it as an election “bribe”. “The fund was originally established to assist councils created from the NSW government’s failed council amalgamations,” he said, “but morphed into a brazen pork-barrel scheme. “Ultimately the Coalition designed a scheme with so few checks and balances that $252 million of public money was handed out on a purely political basis to sort out the Coalition’s political problems, to gain an advantage in the 2019 state election and to punish any council that had objected to being forcibly merged.” ....