One has to wonder at the motivation of ADC behind this move. As this is their 3rd or 4th position on the merging of Council areas in New England, in the last few months, what will they want next week? Have they fallen for the three card trick of the money that will supposedly sweeten the deal?

To my way of thinking their proposal, like other aspects of the whole idea, is at best very amateurish.

If we are going to benefit from amalgamations, maybe the place to start would be at State Government level. I do not claim to be the instigator of this idea as it has been mentioned quite often.

State Governments are totally superfluous to administrative needs of Australia. They are a leftover from the days when the colonies were very remote and needed to run their own affairs. If states/territories are needed, do we need eight? After all, the NT & ACT were run by Canberra until the last few years.

While we are all sick to death of the merger business, we must remain committed to fighting it off as we will undoubtedly see a reduction in community and lifestyle should it be implemented.

I would like to thank all speakers at the inquiry and also anyone who wrote a submission to the Boundaries Commission.

Ray Mulligan