Labor Listens to Locals' Outrage Over Merger

He has a map in his office on which he marks down the location of these complaints and a concentrated patch emanates from the central west like an image of the sun.

He visited Wellington yesterday as part of his tour of the region and was greeted by council and the Wellington Stands Alone Anti-Amalgamation Group.

"It's not a Labor/Liberal, Labor/Nationals fight," he said.

"This is a dispute with the community. The communities are in dispute with the government." more page 3

from page 1

"I have [spoken to] many ministers; National, Labor, Greens, Shooters Party, Fred Nile, and everybody is saying this is just wrong."

Peter Primrose said Mike Baird was being secretive in refusing to release the KPMG report.

"He is refusing to release evidence he has used to justify forced amalgamations," he said.

"Let's have a proper discussion.

"I have no problem with mergers, but we are saying they should be voluntary and we are concerned because Mike Baird made his announcement in December and has refused to release the KPMG report.

"We [Labor] have learnt that lesson. No forced mergers? It's in the Australian Labor platform and future governments will be bound by that."

Mr Primrose said it was revealed as part of the Parliamentary inquiry last year that the biggest problem councils had was financial.

"Yes, there are financial problems, but you don't sort these out by making councils bigger," he said.

"No evidence in the world says bigger is better. We must look at councils' finances first."

Mayor Anne Jones said the communities of Wellington and Dubbo were adamant they didn't want a merger.

"The process has not been open and transparent and we have not received support from our local member," she said.

"We are still none the wiser with the KPMG report. All we have received is the assumptions report which tells us absolutely nothing."

As he met with the community, Mr Primrose urged locals to make politicians of all parties listen - particularly Mike Baird.