I thought I might share my thoughts on something a little more serious than usual. It seems that with the rates increase of 9.75 per cent, which is nearly double anywhere else apart from Noosa (which I couldn’t care less about anyway), everyone is outraged.
Just for the record, I’m not outraged as I firmly believe some poor decisions were made by our council in at least three previous terms, leading up to this debacle, that the current Mayor or CEO had no control over.
I am not really surprised that we are getting whacked in the hip pocket. I am not happy about it, but I do get it. I am more critical of the increased dog fees and the bizarre reasoning as to why, but I will leave that for another day.
So, as I said, people are outraged. Petitions are floating around and there’s a lot of chat about too many levels of government (with support for axing at least one of them).
I do agree but if it were me, I wouldn’t axe the local council level, as some folk want to. I would look at state or federal levels after seeing a few expenses for our local federal members.
If I were a dictator, I would axe the feds. If you think about how much it costs to send members and their staff to Canberra, it will save a whole lot of cash if they did most of it online rather than in person.
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Or, even better, get rid of the whole circus and let the premiers run the country. Sure, there would be robust debate, but we are paying through the nose to send people to Canberra to act like schoolkids. At least this way, we cut out one level of poor behaviour.
I know it won’t happen, but I’m wondering if I am the only one who becomes annoyed when I get a flyer in the mail from our esteemed local member, telling us all what a great job he is doing, or with a recipe for Anzac biscuits.
I am really annoyed thinking about people living in their cars or worse when we get a glossy pamphlet telling us what a good job the member is doing in opposition. To me, the word ‘opposition’, with this current crew, is a hell of an exaggeration.
Anyway, get rid of that level of government, let each state raise its own revenue and I reckon rates might go down, or, at the very least, pet registrations as there will be one less mouth at this dog’s breakfast.
Ashley Robinson is Mets Caloundra CEO, chairman of Thunder Netball and a lifetime Sunshine Coast resident.
