That's easy to answer - the $64 question wasn't worth two cents!
At this week's MCC meeting Councillors considered the motion put by Councillor Bell for a consultation strategy to be developed to seek the views of residents in the southern part of MCC on effectively whether they would prefer to be in Port Stephens Council rather than in MCC.
Two Councillors spoke in favour of the motion and three spoke against it.
The two main objections to the motion were that this issue had never been raised in Community Consultation meetings in Hawks Nest, and that since Council was in caretaker mode such a motion was inappropriate.
It was also stated that Council should "let people lead their own wishes", and residents should discuss this with Port Stephens Council before bringing it to MCC.
The motion was lost with two votes for it, and six against it, with three Councillors not voting being absent.
The cynic might say that this is just another example of how MCC doesn't care about the views of its southern communities, including NAC. What do you think?
The NACRA can not be the…
The NACRA can not be the prime mover for the process to switch to another local government area. The process cannot be started until both councils have collectively agreed it would be in everyones interest & then make a submission to the Department of Local Government ( State Government ) . For both councils to consider this there would need to be a referendum or overwhelming agreements by all the residents of both Municipalities. I don’t believe any of us would be around by the time this could be achieved. I think we should concentrate our limited resources on getting the most attention we can muster from the MCC .