6 October

As another week begins in local government, another week of constant abuse from members of the community, I thought this was timely. You can see here that all councils, everywhere, are financially collapsing. Not because of corruption and incompetence, the favourite kidult idea (everything is goodies and baddies for adults who are still teenagers), but because as the article says, only 3 cents out of every tax dollar goes to local government, even though it oversees vast amounts of the nation’s infrastructure. Nearly 700,000 km of roads, just for starters. 80 cents goes to the feds, 17 to the States. The overwhelming majority of services are provided by States and local councils. The feds are hogging all of the money, to buy votes. "Their (councils’) cost of delivery is so much higher than the money they're getting in," says the guy who studies this for a living. That’s the problem, folks. Any populist blowhards in your local community, usually via social media these days, constantly banging the drum about how useless Council staff are, are just that. Blowhards, feathering their own populist nests.