Rudd has no credibility on forced Council amalgamations
31st October, 2007
Opposition leader Kevin Rudd has no credibility when he claims to be opposing forced council amalgamations, Federal Member for Wide Bay, Warren Truss, said today.Indeed, he played a key role in ruthlessly imposing them on Queensland in 1992 over the top of strong community protests.
Mr Truss said that Kevin Rudd knew there was massive community objection to forced
amalgamations in 1992 - he could not have avoided the protest.
“Yet now we are being asked to believe that a man who was so ruthless in 1992 is now backing plebiscites,” Mr Truss said.
“It just doesn’t wash. There were calls for referenda then. They were ignored by Premier Wayne Goss and Mr Rudd.”
Mr Truss said that a State Labor Member at the time recently publicly recalled the negative community mood when Labor was forcing through its 1992 amalgamations.
The former Labor member for Barron River, Dr Lesley Clark, told the Australasian Study of Parliament group in March that the forced amalgamations ‘caused a storm of protest the length and breadth of Queensland’.
Dr Clark said she still has very clear memories of going to public meetings and being greeted with angry protesters with placards as she got off the bus. She said the crowds made it very clear to how they felt.
Dr Clark said the Minister was on a mission ‘and so was the government’.
Mr Truss said that despite that mood, Mr Rudd and the Labor Government pushed the amalgamations through.
“Voters should remember that betrayal when they go to the polls on November 24,” Mr Truss said.
ENDS
