A Fresh Look at Municipal Consolidation in Australia

This article draws from a major research project examining the impact of various forms of municipal consolidation in Australia and New Zealand. Its wide-ranging research involved studies of 15 cases of different forms of consolidation, including amalgamation, together with a series of interviews with senior practitioners from the local government sector. Data revealed little evidence of consistent economies of scale from consolidation, however both case studies and interviews indicated that consolidation generated economies of scope and what may be termed 'strategic capacity'. While it was not possible to disaggregate the data for particular sizes of local authority, enhancement of strategic capacity was more obvious through processes of consolidation in larger ones and less so in smaller, more remote ones.