Guyra ANTY group’s fight to bring back the Guyra Shire Council gained momentum in parliament this week with a new bill introducing what could be a game-changer in the amalgamation argument.
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The bill, gaining support from the Shooters, Fishers and Farmers Party and the Greens, demands the demolition of the Berejiklian Government’s Council Amalgamation Policy.
It also proposed a demand for plebiscites to be held in council areas already amalgamated to gauge a community’s rejection or support of the coalition’s amalgamation policy.
The upper house also voted for binding referendums in areas threatened by amalgamations and fighting forced mergers in court.
“We need everyone to ask Adam Marshall, ‘will you support the bill just passed in the upper house?’,” ANTY spokesman Gordon Youman told The Argus on Monday.
“The majority of Guyra residents have been given no proof this [amalgamation] is working.
“Whether now or in 2019 we will get Guyra back.”
But Save our Council Coalition said a vote for support of the bill in the lower house would be difficult.
“Thursday’s vote is an embarrassment for the Berejiklian Government that deceptively bypassed the parliament to ram through its despised forced council amalgamation agenda,” SOCC spokesman Phil Jenkyn said.
He said it was time for local Liberal and National Party members to stand up and vote with the other parties in the lower house.
The bill will come before the lower house after winter recess.