We are now just five weeks away from local government elections on 14 September and one thing is for certain – there will be a significant amount of change from this set of Councillors to the next.

With three confirmed Councillors showing themselves the exit door, and rumours of at least a fourth – change is in the air and The Bugle welcomes this with open arms. There is only one more formal Council meeting before this scandal-plagued administration enters caretaker mode and the down and dirty of campaigning begins. 

It looks to have already started with a broad missive from Councillor Renkema-Lang and some not so veiled swipes at her fellow Councillors and ultimately the whole Council regarding an overarching lack of genuine achievement over the last three years. It looks as though picking up the pieces and making lemonade out of some pretty average lemons will be the job of a new set of Councillors come October 2024.

Councillor Renkema-Lang does not speak on behalf of the entire organisation – Council’s oft-referenced and inconsistently applied media policy makes that ‘clear’ – but she has ultimately voiced what everyone is thinking; what have they achieved in the last three years?  

The incumbent Labor Councillors Larkins and Draisma are seeking re-election on a platform of ensuring ‘local government in Kiama remains independent’ and that ‘local decision-making stays in local hands and that our Council remains a non-amalgamated entity’.

So, the platform is: “We think there should be a Council, and we think we should be the Councillors, so vote us back in? With multiple sections of the community calling for Administration of this Council – the antithesis of what these two councillors are saying – The Bugle is not sure that this is the wisest of campaign platforms.

The State Government has not proposed any form of Council amalgamations as part of their local government policy. In fact, quite the opposite, they are more concerned with how to deal with councils wanting to de-merger. 

One would think that the last thing any of our brethren in the region would be striving towards is absorbing our structural deficit and being a part of the future economic and financial pain that Council (and ratepayers) are surely going to face over the coming years.

Which begs the question, what is Kiama Labor 2024 actually about? At least newcomer Lucy Abood has a tangible idea on what matters to her in a pitch to win a seat at the table: 

 "As a mother of two young children, ensuring we have quality early childhood education, affordable housing options, and a liveable environment for families is extremely important to me. I will be a strong voice advocating for these issues and more if elected to council."

Housing is the primary State and National platforms for the Labor party, but it has barely rated a mention from these two Labor councillors. Whilst their colleagues and professional bosses (Councillor Draisma works for NSW Planning Minister Paul Scully and Councillor Larkins works from Fiona Phillips MP) are trying to address the housing crisis and pulling every lever they can, these two remain blissfully unaware or unwilling to acknowledge that our house prices are the most expensive in regional NSW. 

Council’s draft Growth and Housing Strategy is currently on exhibition guiding growth for years to come. Conspicuously absent was any commitment towards an affordable housing policy, a fact that was strongly remarked upon by Michele Adair, CEO of Housing Trust. 

Ms Adair is a national commentator, advocate and expert on all things affordable housing – might be worthwhile for these Councillors getting an understanding of the ‘platform’. 

As part of the draft Housing Strategy, Bombo Quarry rates yet another mention, and The Bugle attended a briefing on the landowners’ plans. We commend them on being transparent in the information they provided, but ultimately the message was clear: whether it is when quarrying will stop and when construction will start - there’s a lot they don’t know. And this includes affordable housing.

Whilst the Transport Asset Holding Entity (TAHE) was quick to commit to ‘affordable housing’, they were not able to clarify what affordable housing actually means in the context of Bombo Quarry, nor how much of it they would commit to.

As one of the biggest projects in the area, and led by a Labor Government, one might have thought that the Labor Councillors would have gotten some form of clarity or commitment prior to TAHE putting pen to paper. 

One thing is clear, any genuine initiatives that do address the housing crisis will be in spite of this Council, not because of it.

Housing is just one aspect that will be part of this forthcoming election campaign. 

The Bugle’s View is that every Councillor seeking re-election should clearly state their achievements over their time in Council, what policy platforms they stand for, and what they will seek to achieve in their next term of local government.

Hopefully, there is a bit more substance to come.