New Home for The Herald as Nine Sells ACM

BY MADELAINE MCNEILL

Nine Entertainment has sold its regional and community newspapers, including The Newcastle Herald and The Maitland Mercury.

The company responsible for the papers and a range of other Hunter publications, Australian Community Media, was acquired by Nine in its merger with Fairfax late last year and has now been sold to former Fairfax executive Antony Catalano and Thorney Investment Group.

The $125 million dollar deal is expected to be complete by the end of June, with Nine to receive an estimated $115 million dollars in cash proceeds and an additional $10 million dollars in advertising revenue over the next three years.

ACM and Nine have entered into arrangements to preserve their commercial relationships, including the sharing of content between regional and metropolitan publications during a short transitional period.

Nine CEO Hugh Marks said in a statement the sale is aligned with his organisation's strategy to exit non-core businesses and focus on its portfolio of high-growth, digital assets.

"We will retain a commercial relationship with ACM and look forward to continuing to work with the business in areas where there are mutual benefits to both Nine and ACM.”

ACM also owns The Maitland Mercury, Port Stephens Examiner, Cessnock Advertiser, Lakes Mail, Dungog Chronicle, Newcastle Star, Muswellbrook Chronicle, Singleton Argus and Scone Advocate.

Antony Catalano has purchased ACM along with Thorney Investment Group. Image: SMH

Upper Hunter MP calling to sack Dungog Council

BY JESSICA ROUSE

Despite $15 million confirmed to be on the table, Dungog Council knocked back a rescission motion to voluntarily merge with Port Stephens overnight.

In front of a packed gallery, Dungog councillors voted 4-3 to stand alone instead of choosing to voluntarily merge with Port Stephens Council and essentially waved goodbye to significant money from the NSW Government.

Councillor Tracy Norman was the surprising vote last night who two weeks ago supported the push for a merger, but last night said she didn't support the rescission motion that sought to overturn the council vote from a fortnight ago.

"What stone motherless broke council knocks back $15 million dollars for the benefit of their ratepayers? I don't get it. There's been more than enough community consultation. This whole process has been going on since October 2011," said Upper Hunter MP Michael Johnsen.

After the council knocked back the motion, Michael Johnsen is gobsmacked and is now calling on his own government to step in and sack Dungog Council and appoint an administrator.

"Council has recognised publicly and privately for many many years it is unviable short, medium and long term yet it is incapable of doing anything about it. So if that was a business you would expect an administrator to be put in place," said Michael Johnsen.

The Upper Hunter MP can't believe an essentially broke council voted against the opportunity for funds which would fix an immense backlog of work including capital works and Parliamentary Secretary for the Hunter Scot MacDonald is of the same mind but urges council not to be too hot headed.

"I would strongly urge council to listen to their community, look at what's on the table from the NSW Government, think about their capital works, put aside the politics and think about what's best," said Scot MacDonald.

Michael Johnsen says not only is money an issue, staff are fed up and ratepayers are stuck with an incapable council.

"They are losing very good staff, the morale amongst the staff is just dreadful at the moment. The community have had enough, they just want the council to get on and make a decision and go with it and council just can't seem to do that for whatever reason so if they're not capable of doing it then perhaps we should step in and assist the community regardless of the council."

Dungog merger a no go yet again

BY IAN CROUCH and JESSICA ROUSE

Dungog councillors have voted against a rescission motion overnight to overturn the decision to reject a merger with Port Stephens Council two weeks ago.

A packed gallery jeered as Dungog councillors voted 4-3 against the motion.

In rejecting the motion, councillors also said goodbye to a $15 million rescue package from the state government.

Upper Hunter MP, Michael Johnsen confirmed the cash injection at the meeting and has told the Herald he was gob-smacked by the decision and is now calling for the Local Government minister to step in and sack the council.

Will Dungog vote to merge this time?

BY IAN CROUCH and JESSICA ROUSE

Just two weeks after councillors narrowly decided aginst merging, Dungog will meet again tomorrow to vote on the possible merger with Port Stephens.

A $15 million rescue package from the state government is at stake which could be put back on the table if the councils agree to merge voluntarily.

In the vote two weeks ago, councillors voted 5-4 against the move, but tomorrow's outcome could be quite different.

Since the vote, Councillor Tony Mackenzie has resigned on medical grounds and Mayor Harold Johnston has reportedly now changed his mind to vote in favour of the merge.

Deputy Premier, John Barilaro says he'll go into bat for the funding if council agrees to merge.

Image abc.net.au

Dungog and Port Stephens merger a no go

BY IAN CROUCH and JESSICA ROUSE

Dungog Councillors voted against a merger with Port Stephens at a meeting overnight, despite concerns the town could struggle in the future.

Without help from Dungog's neighbour, the town could struggle to provide services and infrastructure.

A delegation comprising of the council's general manager, mayor and deputy will now instead seek more information about the proposed merger and look to Maitland to look into their views on linking up.

Image abc.net.au

They will also look at splitting the shire and retaining Dungog's independence.

Councillors also voted last night to put the merger plan to the people and conduct a poll at the next election to gauge ratepayers opinion on the issues.

Newcastle Merger Legal Action Could Cost $700,000

BY IAN CROUCH

 Newcastle councillors have voted to press ahead with legal action to try to stop a proposed merger with Port Stephens despite warnings it could cost thousands of dollars and be a complete waste of time.

A report to council from interim CEO Frank Cordingley said legal action could cost more than $700,000 and, even if successful, would be unlikely to stop the merger from going ahead.

Photo Courtesy Newcastle Herald

Port Stephens residents voice anger at merger meeting

BY JESSICA ROUSE

Port Stephens residents voiced their anger and frustration at the first meeting of the inquiry into the proposed merger between Port Stephens Council and Dungog Shire Council yesterday.

Fifty residents attended the meeting in Nelson Bay, expressing their anger at the Baird government’s forced amalgamations alongside Port Stephens MP Kate Washington.

Washington says residents feel the NSW government have failed their community.

“The community’s voice has been completely ignored, they all voiced opposition to it, we’ve been refused a plebiscite, no one is taking any notice of what our community’s wishes are. For a government, they are meant to work with communities, support communities, instead we are seeing a government imposing decisions on our community”.

On 12th May Premier Mike Baird and Local Government Minister Toole announced that 46 councils would be merged into 19 new councils.

The proposed mergers set to impact Newcastle, Port Stephens, Dungog and Maitland Councils, have been put on hold due to the ongoing inquiry into the proposed merger between Port Stephens Council and Dungog Shire Council.

The merger has received overwhelming community opposition with 803 submissions lodged prior to the latest Delegate report, 747 of which opposed the merger. Despite this, the Delegate’s report recommends proceeding with the merger.

Washington said, “We want to stand alone, we’ve earned the right to stand alone and we operate successfully in that manner. The government has failed to prove that there are any efficiencies moving or merging in any direction, but we’re being entirely ignored”.

Port Stephens Commit $200 000 to Fight Merger

Port Stephens Council has committed up to $200 000 to help fight against the State Government's decision to merge it with neighboring Newcastle Council.

Council had originally agreed to $150 000 however, the amount was increased to allow for additional rallies to help drum up support against the merger.

Funding will also be spent on establishing a submission to present to the State Government in February.

Deputy Mayor, Chris Doohan says the merger will be devastating for Port Stephens.

"This is nothing personally [sic] against Newcastle, it's just a crap deal for the people of Port Stephens that are going to have to fund the major amounts of dept incurred by poor Governments in the Newcastle City Council."

Fighters: Bruce MacKenzie and Chris Doohan

The outcry comes after the IPART deemed Port Stephens Council to be 'Fit for the Future'.  Both Lake Macquarie and Newcastle were at the time expected to merge before the final decision was made.

However, Doohan claims their is little reason to merge.

"They've given us a bunch of reasons why they [the Baird Government] want us to merge, but the only one's that got anything to do with local Government is the Newcastle Airport."

"The rest of them are all actually State Government type things, like hospitals and schooling, so the arguments flawed from the get go."

Council has also ruled out backing down should the submission be rejected, with Mayor Bruce MacKenzie evoking the ANZAC 'never give up' attitude, and quoting British Prime Minister, Winston Churchill, saying "we will never surrender."

Deputy Mayor, Chris Doohan evoked the same attitude.

"We will fight until it's craved in stone that the merger has to happen."

"I won't even call it a merger, it's
a takeover as far as I'm concerned and it's a bum deal for the people of Port Stephens."

Image Courtesy of Stephen Wark, via Port Stephens Examiner (LINK).

Proposed Merger of Newcastle City and Port Stephens Councils

Image sourced: Gordan, 2015, Newcastle Herald from
http://www.theherald.com.au/story/3483836/mp-outlines-super-council-plan/

Former Mayor of Port Stephens, Craig Baumann, has expressed his concern at the proposal to merge Port Stephens and Newcastle City Council.

In his letter to local government, his key concerns were a lack of 'Communities of Interest', an unproportional percentage of representation for Port Stephens, and the implications on Newcastle's airport.

Mr Baumann in his letter alluded to the fact that a recent IPART report declared Port Stephens "Fit for the Future", also stating Newcastle Council has been "dysfunctional" for a long time and that it cannot manage its budget.

"The infusion of funds from Port Stephens will be great for the people of Newcastle in the short term."

It will be disastrous for the residents of Port Stephens and they will fight it tooth and nail,"he said.

He made further suggestions to improve the Hunter which included extending the Northern boundary of the town to include the Myall Lakes.

He encourages residents to lodge objections and make submissions to the government before final decisions are made.