Welcome to this week’s editorial,
Who to vote for in the local government elections? Where do you start?
Like any horse race we are aware that there will be candidates coming from various stables backed by the resources of handlers and trainers. The Liberals, Labor and Greens have already decide on their silk colours and these will be on display across the shire on “Race Day”, December the 4th.
The lesser known stables will be represented as well, however, with limited budgets and fewer backers you might be hard pressed to see them at the stating gate.
Like a good punter you will be interested in the form of the candidates. Very few study the form guide until “Race Day” and when they do they discover it has little information. So little in fact that most punters will resort to their decision on who to back based on silk colours, stable names, trainers name and even jockey name of the jockey has had previous form.
That might be a reasonable way of selecting a winner but it is also odds on that you might pick a dud and the form guide failed to tell you your selection performs poorly under pressure or on a heavy track.
So much like a horse race the Eurobodalla is going to hold the Eurobodalla Cup on December 4th and the winners will be our next councillors.
The candidates are already presenting themselves and their form guides are being written that outline what each might promise to get them over the line.
In the past they have spruiking things like “The Council can be the solution. It should not be the problem” or “A Council you can trust. A Council which is your friend not your enemy”
You might even encounter a spruiker on a fruit box promising “We won’t just listen to our residents’ reasonable concerns. We will take notice and we will take action,“ or “Council must live within its residents’ means. “
The truth of the matter is that all that spruiking is little more than electioneering bullshit as was proven by the CA A councillors at the last Council election who failed to deliver on most of their promised mandate.
Promises such as “We will establish a Waste Watch Committee to get maximum value and minimise waste” or “we will establish an independent Ombudsman to allow residents to appeal against administrative actions they believe are unfair” are easy to write on a flyer and to the average punter signal the result that many are looking for. But, as we have seen with the previous term of Innes, Tait and Nathan these were just spin phrases to sucker in votes.
The trick is to be proactively informed of what you want as a resident and ratepayer rather than relying on the promises of politicians in the making. Be aware that there is a major difference between what they promise and what they can deliver, constrained by the budget, policies and the Local Government Act.
In the end there is very little that councillors actually can do. In the past five years our councillors managed to achieve the following under their own making. Cat Bibs, no helium balloons on public reserves, a temporary permit for those with a temporary condition such as hip replacement to allow parking in a disabled spot and free parking in Batemans Bay. Pretty much everything else was as a result of Council staff going about their duties to ensure roads and assets were repaired or replaced by priority and that the wheels of Local Government kept turning.
So if you actually want change in the community the best people to talk to are the Council staff. It is the staff and their processes that map out what is provided, when it is provided, how and when it is maintained and when it is replaced. The staff are bound by Acts, Policies and Guidelines that ensure their decisions are open and transparent. It is the reports and strategies that the Councillors of the day endorse.
Some Councillors might like to blow smoke up their own backsides and actually lay claim as being co-authors but the hard work rests squarely with the staff.
Knowing that the councillors are, in general, little more than rubber stamps as required under the Local Government Act.
Long before casting you vote for a candidate that may, or may not be, making grand promises of what they will do if elected Eurobodalla citizens should stop for a minute and determine what they want for the shire’s future.
Eurobodalla Council has what is called the Community Strategic Plan that outlines what Eurobodalla will look like in 20 years’ time based on community engagement.
Because the community is pretty indifferent to anything “political” or to do with Council the number of people who make submissions is small. This means that others are speaking on your behalf because you didn’t bother. You want a new playground, a new path, a new wash down area at the boat ramp, an upgrade to a toilet, some new benches in the park, maybe a new BBQ in the local reserve. Many will moan that Council is not providing this but few will ask “Has anyone told Council what we want?”.
Council is seeking feedback through a dedicated website called Our Eurobodalla. The last Community Strategic Plan was prepared in 2017 and had four central vision statements: friendly, thriving, responsible and proud. Are these still relevant, what’s missing, and what are our priorities for the future?
What do you want in your community? What do you think your community needs to make life a little better, if not for you but for our youth, elderly or disabled?
Council are using community engagement specialists Bang the Table, and they’ve put together online tools so individuals and groups can easily share their views with Council.
Council are contacting the shire’s community and sporting groups directly to ask them to participate, and there’s a special focus on getting young people to have their say.
Long before the Council elections on December 4th our Eurobodalla residents and ratepayers have had an opportunity to provide their vision and priorities, ready for the new term of Council. This is our way of telling the new councillors exactly what we want and what we expect them to deliver in both the short term and long-term to assist in making it a reality.
To participate head to oureurobodalla.esc.nsw.gov.au before Sunday 31 October.
In the meantime, having established what you think your community needs, why not join a local Community Association such as we have in Sth Durras, Long Beach/Maloneys, Nelligen, Broulee Mossy and Tuross Head and let them know your thoughts. These Associations add weight to communicating to Council the voice of the community. Over the decades it has been clubs and associations that have been instrumental in the many facilities we enjoy today from public halls to footpaths, playgrounds to parks and reserves. It has been our community who were the visionaries.
Will there be visionaries putting their hand up to be councillors in December? Not from what I have seen so far. Your best bet is to help write the Community Strategic Plan and have your vision recorded.
Until next—lei
