MEDIA RELEASE
Tuesday Night, 12 August 2003
Council Amalagamtions: Randwick Labor Councillors Try for Ambitious Land Claims - South Sydney Council Targeted for Dismemberment.
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Labor Councillors controlling Randwick City Council are preparing to call for forced amalgamations with their neighbouring municipalities.
An extraordinary meeting will be held next Tuesday night to consider three options put forward by Mayor Dominic Sullivan.
The options all include as a basic that Randwick should absorb all of the Port Botany facilities and all land to the east of South Dowling Street and Moore Park Road up to the Centennial Park area.
The Mayor's preferred option would see Randwick also getting Hillsdale, Pagewood, Eastgardens and Daceyville.
Botany Bay Council would be compensated for its losses by being given all of Sydney Airport and the “communities to the immediate north of Botany Bay”.
An even more ambitious proposal would see South Sydney completely dismembered and distributed between Randwick, Sydney City, Marrickville and Woollahra.
Mayor Sullivan was forced to postpone a decision after non-labor Councillors called for more time to absorb a report he gave to them just 10 minutes prior to the meeting.
Greens Councillor Murray Matson stated that he had been startled to find in the report a suggestion for what he referred to as the “complete dismemberment of South Sydney”.
Clr Matson after tonight's meeting,
“The Mayor of Randwick dropped the report on us leaving virtually no time for proper evaluation. To adopt it tonight as he wanted would have been unbelievably compliant of the Councillors as a body.”
The Mayor further aggravated the Greens by suggesting that he be delegated “the authority to pursue the principles of this report” with Government and neighbouring Councils.
Clr Matson commented,
“There is no way the Greens will easily accept that a right wing ALP Mayor will be given total discretion to decide how the Eastern Suburbs and Inner City will be represented.
Not after the acrimonious battles the Greens have had with him this year already over other representational issues such as reducing the number of Randwick Councillors.”