by Cat Holloway /
I settled in yesterday evening for a bit of escapist TV but ended up watching two nights’ worth of local council debate over rate rises from back in January.
Actually, it was more enlightening than you might think! Although I admit to skipping some bits.
Remember January? When a popular uprising in Shoalhaven quashed Council plans for a rate rise to save the organisation from falling into administration but demanded it keep delivering on people’s demands for free libraries, leisure centres and smoothly paved roads?
Well, that debt debate is all coming back to us tonight in a special Council meeting to consider the CEO's workforce and asset management strategy including, yes, a rate rise!
Exactly as ex-Mayor Amanda Findley warned would happen. (Region Illawarra).
“I don’t need a crystal ball to predict that the council that will be elected in September 2024 will be faced immediately with the unsolved challenge and a rate rise will be quickly on the cards.”
The January debate was brimming with irritatingly important details about cost shifting by the State and Federal government, an unfair glitch in the system forcing Shoalhaven to pay a metropolitan waste levy, top-heavy public service staff structures, differences between business, agricultural and residential rates, IPART, LGCI and AEC (whatever, right?)
But what struck me was not the rates, but the ratepayers. And the way Shoalhaven's "people power" increasingly looks like mob justice.
Forget branch stacking, bloc voting and media bias in politics. It was the public gallery - chock-a-block, loud and abusive - that set the tone for this debate.
I support the right to protest, but I don't think the people got this one right. Not in the style or the substance.
But the people were led to Council chambers by three human flaws: Greed, Fear and Misinformation.
It's bad enough that some leaders encourage this mindset to win elections. But when leaders in power perpetuate, even congratulate populist thuggery, it's far more damaging to our community than potholes.
It's fairytale bullshit.
Let's not forget that the people who angrily refused that January rate rise also happily accepted a $300 relief payment after the season of COVID-19 and black summer bushfires.
That gift was expected to cost Shoalhaven Council $17.5 million. Current Council documents say "the net cost of the disasters...reduced the unrestricted cash position of Council by $14.6 million."
Council's COVID-related fever returned $5 million in fees to developers and waived charges to local sport, art and community groups.
So much for karma. Council have since copped more hate than ever.
Rest assured, I'm embedded in the middle on this. We all know that only death and taxes are certain (thanks, Benjamin Franklin). If we want a beautiful, modern and safe Shoalhaven, we all have to pay for it. And it's property owners who pay rates.
But we also know that bureaucracies are bloated and inefficient, and we'd be stupid not to streamline from the top down rather than keep hitting up battlers at the bottom.
Mayor Patricia White, still a councillor in January, roused applause with an extreme concern that a special rate variation:
"will put some residents with their children out on the street with nowhere to live. With the current cost of living, they will not be able to provide the food to put on the table and children's sports will go."
So, when the (then) Mayor Amanda Findley stood to remind the jeering gallery that they were "baying for the blood" of more than 1400 council staff, I was reminded of a scene from one of the oldest fairytales, Beauty and the Beast, where the townsfolk, bellies full of beer, believe the lies of the jealous egomaniac, Gaston, and rush en masse with whatever weapons they can fashion to "kill the beast".
Beyond the golden gown and dancing teacup, this story is about more than a magical, if dysfunctional, love affair. It is about government and humanity with a moral lesson on valuing understanding truth over reactionary grandstanding.
It's also a story about learning from your mistakes.
Shoalhaven's new councillors may have to recant their previously staunch sentiments about rate rises and their confidence about "fixing" finances.
Council staff may have to accept some upheaval in a system that generously supports them but is out of touch with the needs of the disadvantaged.
And the people of Shoalhaven may have to get smarter instead of more outraged.
The likely outcome of tonight's debate is that we, the people, will get our say during a community consultation period.
So, let's take the lead from Princess Belle who loved her idyllic village. Belle wasn't much impressed by muscle, empty promises and colourful bouquets. She learned the truth by reading, listening and showing respect even for the one she perceived as her oppressor but who became her partner.
It is completely understandable that people are worried about money. Cost of living pressures are no fairytale for most people in our region.
The solutions lie not in ferocious rhetoric but in complicated realities that most of us skip over to get to the good bits.
Participate, by all means; it's your privilege in a free society. But, with respect, let's look beyond the headlines and read the whole story. That's our democratic duty.
