I got a call from a Council head honcho today, and had a familiar conversation. They're in dire financial straits and struggling to maintain the stuff they already have, much less invest in the future. Trapped in an unsustainable funding model, they've proposed a big rates increase to balance the books.
This has, unsurprisingly, gone down like a cup of cold sick. Locals have gone postal - and the Councillors, previously united, are wavering in the face of fury.
Owning a home, if you're lucky enough, is a spendy business. The mortgage gobbles up half your income, insurance is skyrocketing, and electricity gets dearer every year. That's all before trying to eat, which costs more with every shop.
It's no wonder a rates increase has people so hot under the collar.
And yet... people don't generally picket outside their bank, post death threats to insurance company executives, or pay home visits to electricity board chairs. That kind of unhinged fury is reserved for the local Council. A place where there's real people, with familiar faces, who might listen to you.
People don't picket outside their bank, post death threats to insurance company executives, or pay home visits to electricity board chairs. That kind of unhinged fury is reserved for the local Council.
I landed in Sydney tonight and trod resentfully through the mandatory duty-free shop between plane and customs. Is it any wonder we feel captive and pissed off? Everywhere you turn there's another ploy to suck your wallet dry, another inescapable surcharge, another plinth full of shit you don't need. And good luck complaining about it. When we call a company with a problem, we're sent to an offshore call centre at best, a chatbot at worst. Neither have the power to help.
Under these conditions, it's surprising more people don't take their frustration somewhere people might actually listen.
You can (and should!) try higher tiers of government. Public pressure is a good way to trigger inquiries into the banks making record profits and the reign of supermarket cartels. But if it's action you're looking for, government loves messing with Councils. Rates caps. Amalgamations. Some punching down and a kick in the guts about infrastructure deficits with no money to plug them.
Accusing Councils of being poorly run businesses is an easy shot, but it misses an important point. Why would we model the delivery of public services on the same commercial logic that's making so much of our lives actively worse?
Companies aren't stupid. Taking accountability for decisions is a pain-in-the-ass, and if they're not forced to do it, they won't. Who wants to deal with the kind of crap Councillors get every day? As accountability erodes, and power shuffles behind closed doors, our anger is redirected to the few remaining places with a mechanism for change.
As accountability erodes, and power shuffles behind closed doors, our anger is redirected to the few remaining places with a mechanism for change.
Business isn't the enemy. Most businesses aren't monopolistic, tax-dodging dickwads. Your friendly Wednesday Wisdom writer is running one, and you're probably employed by one. Councils definitely aren't angels (trust me!) and government is neither pure, nor totally corrupt and inept (at least, not here.)
But unaccountable power and wonky incentives make life worse for all of us. And of all the places to direct your ire, I can think of better ones than your local Council.
(Who's joining me on the Woolworths picket line?)
