Costs and timing as a result of the Sunbury separation are the subjects much discussed around Hume, with KPMG reports commissioned by Local Government Minister Jeanette Powell last year indicating significant rate rises for communities subsumed into the new municipality.
Suggestions that the new Sunbury council will make a bid for the Melbourne Airport and its associated lucrative rate base have set off alarm bells that rates in the remaining Hume municipality may also be adversely affected and economic activity thwarted at a time when many thousands of local families face job losses due to the demise of the automotive industry.
Inquiries by the Weekly for a cost and time breakdown of Sunbury’s secession process, which started with a postcode-based poll of all Hume residents in October last year, have not yet been answered. Less than 60 per cent of Sunbury area voters turned out for the poll, and about 60 per cent of those who did vote said they wanted to secede from Hume.
