Vic; NSW council looks to secession to get ahead

AAP General News (Australia)
04-20-2001
Vic; NSW council looks to secession to get ahead

By Jane Williams

MELBOURNE, April 20 AAP - Wentworth residents in southern NSW are sick of looking across
the Murray River at the prosperous Mildura region - and they want a slice of the action
by defecting to Victoria.

Wentworth Shire Council mayor Don McKinnon said councillors had been grumbling for
several years over the way red-tape from the "Sydney-centric" NSW government was hampering
local development.

When city bureaucrats moved in to take control of the area's new sand mining proposal
earlier this year, the council decided to take action.

"At first we wanted to vote on a motion to move the (state) boundary, then we decided
to talk to the Mildura (Rural City) Council first to talk about a merger and see what
they had to offer," Mr McKinnon told AAP today.

"After that we'll take the matter to a community referendum, and if we get 75 per
cent of the vote we'll put the wheels in motion.

"It's an unusual step but if you don't look outside the square you won't advance in life."

He said Wentworth residents felt neglected by the state government, especially compared
to the prosperous Mildura region across the Murray in Victoria.

"We've always felt like the poor relation, compared to Mildura.

"It's like a de facto capital city for us."

The 26,500 square kilometre Wentworth Shire is the fourth largest in NSW, but has a
voting population of just 7,500.

About 96 per cent of the land is long-term leasehold, which residents believed under
Victorian law could be converted to freehold, freeing it from native title obligations.

Mr McKinnon said councillors were unhappy that landowners south of the river were flourishing,
while kilometres away their NSW counterparts were suffering from over-bureaucracy and
the state's crushing native title legislation.

A spokeswoman for NSW Local Government Minister Harry Woods dismissed the proposed
secession as an attention-grabbing stunt by the small country council.

"Preliminary advice suggests that a border change would require a constitutional referendum
of every resident of NSW and Victoria and the approval of the commonwealth government,"

she said.

"I don't think either government would be prepared to cover that cost for the actions
of a council chasing its 15 minutes of fame."

AAP jmw/clr/jas/sb

KEYWORD: WENTWORTH

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