By JONATHON HOWARD
CAPTION: Federal member for Maranoa Bruce Scott wants an end to duplication between Federal, State and Local Governments.
FEDERAL LNP Member for Maranoa, Bruce Scott, has thrown his support behind constitutional recognition of local government in the lead up to this year’s Federal election.
“Under the Howard Government, we developed a policy to directly fund Local Government through the Roads to Recovery Grant because we wanted all of the money to be spent on roads and local priorities and not lost in another level of administration,” Mr Scott said.
“I think it’s important to end the duplication between Commonwealth, State and Local Governments because too often the Commonwealth provides funding administered through the State Government to Local Government. This creates further bureaucracy and results in less taxpayers’ money being spent on the ground or directly to the community.”
The issue was rejected in 1974 and 1988 and history has showed that if a major political party or state opposed the referendum, it was unlikely to be passed.
“Constitutional recognition of Local Government has been widely debated for decades however it would require a majority of Australian voters and a majority of states for any change to proceed,” Mr Scott said.
The issue will be put to the test in a referendum question at this year’s election on September 14.
Mr Scott said while he agreed with the concept of constitutional recognition of the third tier of government, he felt the Labor Government had poorly handled the matter.
“Australians are always cautious about altering our constitution and more time should have been given for public debate” he said.
“The public needs to know the pros and cons of an issue as important as this before they are asked to vote ‘yes’ or ‘no’.”
