Breaking up is hard to do: the costs of de-amalgamation of the Delatite Shire Council

Drew, J; Dollery, B

Breaking up is hard to do: the costs of de-amalgamation of the Delatite Shire Council

Drew, J

Dollery, B

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Publication Type:: Journal Article
Citation:: Public Finance and Management, 2015, 15 (1), pp. 1 - 23
Issue Date:: 2015-03-01

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Field	Value	Language
dc.contributor.author	Drew, J https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3579-5758	en_US
dc.contributor.author	Dollery, B	en_US
dc.date.issued	2015-03-01	en_US
dc.identifier.citation	Public Finance and Management, 2015, 15 (1), pp. 1 - 23	en_US
dc.identifier.issn	1523-9721	en_US
dc.identifier.uri	http://hdl.handle.net/10453/41794
dc.description.abstract	In 1994, the Victorian Government instituted a radical council amalgamation program which eliminated over 60% of all local authorities. In the forcibly merged Delatite Shire Council local resentment engendered a sustained grassroots campaign which eventually reversed its contentious compulsory consolidation. The resultant de-amalgamation was the first in modern Australian local government history, although demergers have occurred in other countries, most notably in Quebec in Canada. Whilst economic theory sheds much light on decentralization, by contrast little work has been done on how best to conduct council deamalgamation. In this paper, constitutive accounting theory is applied to the Delatite Shire Council demerger. The empirical evidence flowing from our analysis contributes to the embryonic literature on municipal de-amalgamation and thereby provides public policymakers in other local government systems with an account of how accounting decisions play a critical role in the future of de-amalgamated municipal entities.	en_US
dc.relation.ispartof	Public Finance and Management	en_US
dc.title	Breaking up is hard to do: the costs of de-amalgamation of the Delatite Shire Council	en_US
dc.type	Journal Article
utslib.citation.volume	1	en_US
utslib.citation.volume	15	en_US
utslib.for	1402 Applied Economics	en_US
pubs.embargo.period	Not known	en_US
pubs.organisational-group	/University of Technology Sydney
pubs.organisational-group	/University of Technology Sydney/DVC (Research)
pubs.organisational-group	/University of Technology Sydney/DVC (Research)/lnstitute for Public Policy and Governance
pubs.organisational-group	/University of Technology Sydney/Strength - IPPG - Institute for Public Policy and Governance
utslib.copyright.status	closed_access
pubs.consider-herdc	false	en_US
pubs.issue	1	en_US
pubs.volume	15	en_US

Abstract:

In 1994, the Victorian Government instituted a radical council amalgamation program which eliminated over 60% of all local authorities. In the forcibly merged Delatite Shire Council local resentment engendered a sustained grassroots campaign which eventually reversed its contentious compulsory consolidation. The resultant de-amalgamation was the first in modern Australian local government history, although demergers have occurred in other countries, most notably in Quebec in Canada. Whilst economic theory sheds much light on decentralization, by contrast little work has been done on how best to conduct council deamalgamation. In this paper, constitutive accounting theory is applied to the Delatite Shire Council demerger. The empirical evidence flowing from our analysis contributes to the embryonic literature on municipal de-amalgamation and thereby provides public policymakers in other local government systems with an account of how accounting decisions play a critical role in the future of de-amalgamated municipal entities.

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http://hdl.handle.net/10453/41794