Four years after voting against amalgamating with a larger council, residents from the Tasman municipality are again facing the prospect of being swallowed up.
Tasmania's Local Government Review Board report has put amalgamation firmly back on the agenda, recommending the state's council boundaries be redrawn, and the number of councils significantly reduced from 29.
The review said those changes could not occur on a voluntary basis and needed to be mandated, sparking fears from regional councils that they could be forced to become part of a larger entity.
At the Murdunna Roadhouse, just inside the Tasman Council boundary, employee Samantha Till said she still heard plenty of resistance about merging.
"A lot of people are worried about having to pay higher rates because they joined a larger council," she said.
"And, obviously, being left out of having our roads and things fixed because we're down the bottom and everyone forgets about us."
Her colleague, Laura Verity, has only been in Tasmania for four years, but said amalgamation was a hot topic.
"You heard about it all when the vote was last time … a lot of people don't want to do it because they don't want to be joined and then everyone loses it out — well that's what people think," she said.
On the other side of the counter, customer Kevin Harper is much more in favour of change.
"[It's] the best thing that could ever happen," he said. "It just doesn't work down here, it's just too small."
He said areas such as Murdunna had been neglected since it was absorbed into Tasman Council, arguing areas such as neighbouring Nubeena received all the attention instead.
"You have a drive out to the roads and have a look at them. They're good at growing potholes."
Tasman ratepayers overwhelmingly voted no to merging with Sorell Council in 2019, with almost 70 per cent of voters in a public poll against amalgamation.
Sorell had voted in favour of the amalgamation, which would have been the first since the number of councils was reduced from 46 to 29 in 1993.
Former minister urges government to push ahead
Former local government minister John Cleary was part of a Liberal government that took a policy of forced council amalgamations to the 1998 state election, eventually settling on 14 as the right number of councils.
That decision faced a significant local outcry, with the Liberals losing the election after securing just 10 of 25 Lower House seats.
"It wasn't supported, particularly in rural communities, and there was a lot of politics played," Mr Cleary said.
Mr Cleary said that, 25 years on, he hoped it was time for change and urged Local Government Minister Nic Street to ensure the number of councils was slashed.
"I think people — and the populace at large — are looking for governments to make decisions and, from what I'm hearing, the minister seems fairly determined that change is going to happen and I would only urge him to stick to his guns," he said.
"We've moved out of the horse and buggy days. We now need to move local government into the 21st century."
Mr Cleary urged local councils — and workers fearing for their jobs — not to automatically reject the idea of forced amalgamation.
"It's important to be part of a change, not opposed to the change, and I think, unfortunately in the past, there's been too many vested interests who are only self-interested in their own situation, [who] are not looking for the broader community's good," he said.
The Local Government Board's stage two report splits the existing 29 councils into nine consultation groups, but chair Sue Smith stressed those did not represent what new boundaries could look like.
That board is set to release its stage three report in September, with Mr Street vowing to introduce any changes in state parliament.
He said the government did not have a preferred model, but that would change once the board handed down its final report.
"On the 30th of September, when we get that report, my role is going to change, and so is the government's, because we'll have to make some solid decisions about what we take forward," he told ABC Radio Hobart.
The Tasmanian Labor Party has already announced its opposition to forced amalgamations.
