Poor old local government can’t take a trick.
It’s right at the bottom of the food chain in the Australian system of government and is not even recognised in the constitution.
As many talented people as dunderheads get elected to councils every four years.
It’s fate is in the hands of state governments which can sack councils at short notice and for reasons that are not always obvious or clear.
And yet what councils do for ratepayers impacts a lot more on the local people that anything state or federal governments do.
What I mean by that is that councils are a lot closer, in a physical sense, to the people they are supposed to serve than any other tier of government.
The time has come to give them constitutional recognition and to abolish the power of state government ministers to sack councils.
With all that out of the way, here is our Top 5 things council things we would miss the most if they were gone:
Number 1. Rubbish. Rain, hail or shine, even on public holidays, the council truck picks up what we threw away during the previous seven days.
Number 2. Roads or maybe this should be called Potholes. I don’t remember the last time I saw a pothole around here, let alone drive over one.
Number 3. Rates. Did we say five things we couldn’t do without? Yep? Oh, well, there’s always an exception to every rule.
Number 4. Libraries. There’s been a lot of talk about the future of libraries since the advent of the internet, but locally anyway ours seem to have adapted. Any time I’ve popped into one to borrow their Wi-Fi they’re always packed with locals.
Number 5: Swimming pools. Not a personal favourite, but when the mercury gets over 40 we can’t all drive down to Austinmer beach to cool off.
