Port Macquarie Hastings Mayor Adam Roberts met with NSW Local Government Minister Ron Hoenig on Thursday to discuss regional priority issues and Local Government reform.
The roundtable meeting with the Minister at Grafton included North Coast Regional Council Mayors and General Managers, as well as State MP's Michael Kemp and Ritchie Williamson.
Mayor Roberts highlighted the need for the State Government to give greater consideration to creating a stable and reliable funding model that would allow regional councils like those on the North Coast of NSW to adequately deliver the key and critical infrastructure to keep pace with their growth.
"I fundamentally believe that the current funding model for NSW Council's is broken and is in dire need of State Government intervention," Mayor Roberts said.
"It is becoming increasingly more difficult for regional councils in particular to fund major infrastructure projects to simply keep up with the population growth, let alone trying to provide anything in the nice-to-have column.
"Without the NSW Government stepping in to provide significant funding support to rapid growth areas such as the Port Macquarie Hastings and broader Mid North Coast, our region's infrastructure backlog will continue to place pressure on our economic development, limit jobs growth and further exacerbate issues such as the significant traffic congestion we are already experiencing here in Port Macquarie.
"That said, I thank the Minister for Local Government for visiting our region to hear our concerns and to also explain the package of potential and upcoming Local Government reforms."
