Sun Shines On Card Idea

Newcastle Herald

Monday January 5, 2009

Joanne McCarthy

NEWCASTLE councillor Aaron Buman's been holidaying at Queensland's Sunshine Coast for the past week or so, jealous of Sunshine Coast residents who get a discount if they flash a resident's card and shop locally.

It adds a lovely touch of irony to the bagging he copped last week after a Herald article outlined his "Newcastle card" proposal to give ratepayers free access to some city facilities while "outsiders" pay.

Newcastle Lord Mayor John Tate, Lake Macquarie Mayor Greg Piper and Maitland Mayor Peter Blackmore questioned the cost of administering a card, whether it would have community support, and the "them and us" attitude it could suggest.

"Councillor Buman should just put toll gates on all roads into Newie," said one letter writer to The Herald.

Cr Buman is prepared to bat on.

"It did strike me as funny," he said by phone last week.

"I was getting calls from friends saying people were having a go at me for proposing a card, and here I am on the Sunshine Coast, watching people use a card to get discounts for being locals who support locals."

Cr Buman's proposal, which he still plans to put to council despite the negative feedback, would allow Newcastle ratepayers free access to Newcastle Ocean Baths, the art gallery and Blackbutt Reserve, while people outside the city area would have to pay.

The idea is to help reduce the cost of supporting regional infrastructure.

"What it's about is rewarding Newcastle people for paying a proportion of their rates to maintain regional facilities for the whole of the Hunter," he said. "I feel quite strongly about it.

"I'm paid $10,000 more than a councillor at, say, Lake Macquarie, because it's Newcastle and we're supposed to have greater responsibilities for regional issues.

"Blackbutt Reserve, the art gallery and the museum each cost this council $1.2 million a year to run. I'm trying to work out some way to give something back to Newcastle ratepayers who pay the bills."

Cr Buman would like to see partnerships between the council, major retail centres, the Knights and possibly some of the major clubs, so that the Newcastle card could offer other incentives for ratepayers, similar to those offered to Sunshine Coast residents.

"People have raised the costs involved, but I wasn't proposing a photo ID card. I think that was a little creative work on the part of The Herald. We issue library cards without anyone raising the issue of cost, and that's all I'm proposing."

And while we're at it, he has a few ideas about other ways to provide better services for the Hunter Region as a whole, and reduce costs.

"The most important issue for me is the amalgamation of the five Hunter lower councils," he said. "Without a doubt we should be just one large council made up of Newcastle, Lake Macquarie, Maitland, Port Stephens and Cessnock."

Cr Buman floated his super council merger idea during the local government election, and the response was surprisingly positive, he said.

"Look at some of the issues here and you realise the fragmented nature of the councils is always going to stop us finding sensible solutions.

"There will never be a sustainable regional transport system in the Lower Hunter under the current set-up, because we can't agree on the best way forward.

"The Lower Hunter and the Upper Hunter are two totally different areas. You wouldn't look at an amalgamation involving the Lower and Upper Hunter areas, but the economies of scale that could be achieved with a single council in the Lower Hunter would allow us to do a lot of the things that have been issues for years."

The super council concept sits nicely within the framework that would have state governments scrapped, and the Federal Government providing funds directly to much larger amalgamated regional councils.

Pie in the sky, of course, but even former treasurer Michael Costa was arguing the states could go and the world wouldn't end, before he went himself.

Cr Buman will press on.

"We're a funny breed, Novocastrians," he says.

"We don't like change, but we need change to make things better. If people want me to sit in the council and do nothing, I can do that, but that's not why we're elected."

jmccarthy@theherald.com.au

© 2009 Newcastle Herald

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