Mayor column: with Cr John Harvie

Published on 29 January 2026

This is my first column for 2026...I hope you had a wonderful Christmas and were able to celebrate Australia Day with a good old Aussie BBQ, a swim in the river or a game of backyard cricket. Congratulations to our Australia Day award recipients and thank you for your contribution to our regional community. We are proud of your achievements.

If I could define the role of a local councillor in the modern age it would be something like; ‘To meet the ever-increasing needs and demands for improved services, infrastructure and community amenities with ever-decreasing funding (in real terms) whilst shackled with prohibitive and restrictive legislation’.

Because of this situation, it is vital that councillors scrutinize every line of expenditure in our budget and that our staff do all that is possible to achieve the best price and value for money on all purchases.

One area that has the potential to provide significant savings is in tendering for major capital works like roads, civil construction and infrastructure replacement. Local governments have long been the milking cow, where tenderers often mark up prices twenty five percent plus when compared to prices tendered for similar works in the private sector. 

Councils have to adhere to strict legislation and regulations when conducting tender processes which prohibit us from ‘haggling’ or inciting competition between the tenderers to deliver a better price for ratepayers. Private companies don’t have these restrictions and are able to shop around for the best price.

There is good reason for these laws and regulations of course, to try to prevent fraud and corruption in the sector. However, I say the cost to ratepayers is too high. 

Council now employs independent and highly qualified individuals in its governance and risk committee, which is responsible for ensuring good governance practices and ethical behaviour of councillors, staff and other stakeholders. They do this by examining councils’ decisions, processes, contracts and accounts. The committee can independently report findings directly to the Office of Local Government and they do a great job in preventing or detecting fraudulent activity.

Council staff have also significantly improved the standard of tender documentation to enable tenderers to accurately quote the job, confident that there are no hidden requirements.

However, we need to do more to effect the larger savings we know are possible……and we will!