Five minutes to midnight

In 2013, the Independent Local Government Review Panel (Sansom Report) suggested that Palerang and Queanbeyan should merge. There is little evidence that this conclusion was based on much more than looking at the map and seeing a city with no country around it and vice versa.

In its most recent campaign to blame local government for potholes and reduced pool opening hours, the State government spent the money that might have fixed some potholes running its Fit For the Future campaign. I'm not being melodramatic. This year Palerang Council, staff and councillors, has devoted a huge amount of effort, diverted from providing services to ratepayers, to jumping through flaming hoops while the Office of Local Government cracks the whip.

Palerang Council is a lean ship that sails close to the wind. So are many other rural councils with a spread-out population connected by a network of roads and bridges. Every year when we set our future projects, we start with what we’d like to do and then keep deleting items until the list equals what we can afford.

This council is not wasteful or inefficient to any extent that affects our financial viability. Rather, the lack of adequate funding is caused by declining revenue and increasing costs. In NSW, rate pegging holds annual rate increases to less than the rise in the cost of living. Our State government prefers this system where councils slowly become cash-strapped and then are forced to apply for a Special Rate Variation every half decade or so.

The Australian government too is reducing its funding for local government. In our area the Financial Assistance Grants are vital to supplement the decreasing revenue from the State government. When Joe Hockey was treasurer the FAG program money was frozen in dollar terms until 2016-17. This alone is costing local government in NSW $300 million in lost revenue each year yet costs continue to rise.

Amalgamation is a red herring. It’s the lack of adequate funding to provide the level of service that the community expects for its tax dollars that is the real issue.

Tacking Palerang on to Queanbeyan and hoping that they will look kindly upon diverting resources our way is wishful thinking. It certainly won’t be decided by the two or three, out of eleven, councillors from ‘our’ (i.e. mostly west of the divide) region.

The same will apply even if the State government changes its mind and allows Palerang to be re-split with the east attaching to Goulburn Mulwaree. Of course Goulburn is unenthusiastic about taking east Palerang while Queanbeyan gets to gobble up the juicy bit.

Fiddling with the boundaries won’t in itself make anything better. It’s all about money. Local government needs $1.2 billion up to 2025 just to keep our roads in their current condition. That’s a lot of money. 

But so is spending $12 billion on 72 fighter jets. Perhaps 36 planes that ‘fly like a brick’ would be just as effective at defending us from idiotic, indoctrinated teenagers. We’d still keep Lockheed Martin in business (that’s important) and while the jets pranced about in the sky, we could all drive on decent roads.

That’s the best solution I can come up with. If you agree then tell Peter Hendy.

Cr Paul Cockram 

Mongarlowe