Misconceiving regional/local tensions: Two case studies from Tasmania

While tensions between the imperatives of regional, state and national development and local autonomy are common, there is no necessary trade-off between the two since regional development can co-exist with a vibrant system of local government. However, this is often not readily appreciated in Australian policy debates, which frequently juxtapose regional and local governance structures. This paper examines two cases studies of this approach in Tasmania, which have generated bitter controversy, in the form of the Southern Tasmania Council Association (STCA) sponsored Independent Panel into Local Government in the Southern Tasmania regional area which produced a Final Report (the 'Munro Report') entitled Independent Review of Structures for Local Governance and Service Delivery in Southern Tasmania and the Tasmanian Division of the Property Council of Australia sponsored Deloitte Access Economics (2011) Report entitled Local Government Structural Reform in Tasmania. It is argued that both documents err poorly in both conceptual and empirical terms and this renders their recommendations for radical local government amalgamation fatally flawed.