Toole fends off NSW council criticism

NSW Local Government Minister Paul Toole has rejected suggestions he "comprehensively and wilfully deceived councils" on the controversial question of forced amalgamations.

NSW Opposition Leader Luke Foley arrived for parliamentary question time on Wednesday with a letter, addressed to then-Oberon mayor Keith Sullivan and signed by Mr Toole.

In it Mr Toole promised: "The amalgamation of councils should only be as a result of mutual agreement. It should not be forced by state government intervention."

Labor's treasury spokesman Michael Daley seized on a local newspaper article from March 2011 in which Mr Toole was quoted saying: "We are committed to leaving these decisions solely in the hands of local government authorities."

"How can you continue to represent this sector that you have so comprehensively and wilfully deceived?" Mr Daley asked.

But the minister has brushed off the criticism.

Mr Toole said the documents reflected outdated government policy and that the community had plenty of notice that NSW was planning to pursue local government reform.

"We've spent four years researching, we've spent four years getting analysis of councils across NSW. All of the messages that have come back clearly show that the system of local government is broken," Mr Toole said.

His comments come the day after the Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal declared nearly two thirds of local councils "unfit", in a government-commissioned report that is expected to pave the way for unpopular forced amalgamations.