"OLG [Office of Local Government] has commissioned KPMG to support development of a robust evidence base to support the NSW government's Fit for the Future agenda," the document says. Premier Mike Baird's government has been ordered by the Land and Environment Court to reveal KPMG's role in council mergers. Credit:Daniel Munoz This was well before the government announced the results of the Fit for the Future review by the Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal, which assessed the health of councils to either stand alone or merge. It was also before the government announced its plans to force mergers. In a press release issued on the day the government announced its preferred mergers in January 2016, Premier Mike Baird and the Minister for Local Government Paul Toole described therole of KPMG, which calculated the savings of each merger, as "independent". Counsel for Strathfield Tim Robertson, SC, said documents delivered on Sunday revealed KPMG had been "intimately involved in the formulation of proposals and the report had been done in order to do the government's bidding".

"The lack of independence of KPMG has always been a central part of our case," he said. The latest developments are politically damaging and could see the council mergers cases string out for months. Far from KPMG providing an "independent" review of the government's financial claims, it's now clear that it was KPMG that came up with those alleged savings in the first place, Greens MP David Shoebridge said. "There was no independent review from KPMG, they were marking their own homework."