Dear Reader,
A number of you have kindly reached out over the last months asking what has happened to my column.
In short, I have been challenged by a few life experiences that have included family health, work commitments, and lo and behold, a direct intrusion into our lives by none other than Council. The latter being addressed by an Ombudsman investigation into Council and which will hopefully be concluded at the end of August. I will speak further on this matter once the investigation is finalised.

Enough of my woes, let’s turn to you, the people of the Scenic Rim, and some of your issues. No doubt you will have received your rates notice and will be forced to write a hefty cheque to Council, handing over hard-earned money in exchange for municipality services.
The first question you would ask: are my rates being applied to services the community needs? Are they being applied effectively, and are they efficiently deployed?
Council during their budgetary process introduced what they called a “community budget consultation” whereby Council claims they are on an “ongoing journey towards becoming a more customer-focused organisation, that values and responds to community feedback”.
Yet, the draft summary budget put up during the “consultation period”, which came with a suggested ‘around 8% overall rate increase’ appeared to be identical to the budget handed down.
By my observations, I could not find anyone remotely interested in an 8% increase, and who were far from satisfied with the proposed works given the past history of not delivering projects on time, or on budget, with special regard to around $75m in capital underspend. This underspend will be carried forward, and a great many projects will be incomplete from the previous year’s budget... as this underspend has occurred in the budget before.
How can Council ask for more money when not delivering in previous years?
Quite simply, a budget increase should not be built around CPI (inflation) or complaints of other funding sources such as Federal Grants drying up.
A major component of formulating budgets should be around past delivery
i.e., the question to be asked is: have you completed all works forecasted in the previous years, and what is the capability and likelihood of delivering what is proposed going forward?
In terms of waste and efficiency, there is zero transparency by this Council in determining whether or not we are getting any bang for our buck! A simple example is the wage and staff bill – around $37m. How many? How often? Capability? Delivery? More simply put – one big black hole.
Not so long ago I stumbled across a SRRC survey titled “How Easy Is It To Do Business With Us”.
There were 21 questions ranging across various subjects from Waste Services to Council-run events. The first five questions related to age, gender, ethnicity and connection to the Scenic Rim. As a sample question, Question 19 reads: “From recent experience, how easy was it to interact with us using the following methods?” To answer, tick boxes followed, offering a range from Very Easy to Very Difficult for varying services – telephone, email, Face to face, Let’s Talk Scenic Rim (platform) etc.
I can only say: “If the telephone is not ringing, it is Council calling!”
My understanding of this style of survey is that it’s generated by a programme that offers a range of services provided by a company/organisation called “Bang The Table” see www.bangthetable.com . It is also my understanding that we are paying thousands of dollars in a paid subscription for this software service.
Councillors: are you serious? We are not Brisbane CC, with millions of constituents… we are only 40,000 people living in a regional setting.
Councillors: paying private consultants or using a paid subscription for a senseless survey is one inefficiency wasting thousands of dollars a year. How many more senseless court cases, private consultants or paid-for subscription surveys are there? Residents are not informed, and these outgoings could ultimately add up to hundreds of thousands, if not millions.
Councillors: Please Stop Wasting Our Money!
People of The Scenic Rim: I think it is time YOU banged the Council table!
Postscript: Dear Reader, this will be the first and last article under the column title “Short and Sharp”. Please keep your eye out for what comes next…