Local government is a dismal failure, for many reasons. One obvious reason is the type of candidate who runs for office. In many years of involvement with my council, I have observed the following types:
- Using it as a stepping stone to higher office.
- One, narrow reason for running, with no understanding of bigger issues.
- Local businessmen looking to consolidate their position in the community and/or "adjust" regulations to suit their business needs.
- Unemployed, with too much time on their hands and no discernible skills.

To be fair, I must also report working with people who have a real heart for their community and a great desire to serve them. Sadly, they are few and far between and rarely get a say, once the politics begin.

And that's only one of the problems with local government. If I have the energy, I shall detail some more later. However, in brief:

- Duplication of roles with state and/or federal government.
- Poor financial management.
- Little or no interest in engaging with their community members.
- Poorly qualified councillors overruling appropriately qualified employees.
- Factional infighting.

And the list goes on...

Well what do you know? A bureaucrat/academic who actually comes out & says what we have always known they all think.

That is that they know better than the people, & their elected representatives, & we should all shut up & do as we are told by our betters.

Well he has highlighted what is wrong with the country & it's cities, people like him.

Now how do we get these self anointed controllers off our backs, so we might do something right for a change.

Years of their planning has not resulted in anything you would call successful. The most visible result is hundreds of miles of quite expensive bike paths no one uses, & a fleet of the fool things, payed for by the poor rate payer, sitting unused in Brisbane. Oh & a bunch of desalination plants, that cost billions, sitting useless in a number of cities.

in opinion the local government of many areas are being paid for the wrong things and should spend more time helping locals instead of worrying about building structures or car parks . i beleive that having more contact with locals may help with their upcoming election.

It is possibly that a chicken-and-egg process might work here.

If the Local Authority actually had local authority, maybe people would care more who gets elected as their Councillor. And if they cared more, the quality of Councillor would improve beyond the current mixed bunch of dead-heads and chancers that rational-rebate so acutely observes.

As it is, most of the important supposedly local decisions are either overruled by, or enacted unilaterally by, the State Government.

I know, it goes against history to imagine that any improvement in governance, or the folk who are involved in it, is even remotely possible.

Just colour me dreaming.