From pools to seawalls – councils can’t keep their heads above water

There’s red-hot fury in the gentle streets of North Sydney over its pool rebuild, cost blowout and a proposal for rate rises of 87 per cent over two years. The laid-back vibe of the northern beaches has been contaminated by resident rage due to a proposal for a 40 per cent increase over three years.

With their blue waters and great lifestyle, these Sydney areas have been the envy of many of us, who would love to live there. But if you’re feeling suddenly smug for not doing so, I’ve got bad news. Your council may be in trouble, too.

Protesters gather outside the Northern Beaches Council meeting.Credit: James Brickwood

As a rookie reporter in the ’90s, I was horrified to be assigned to cover local government. Councils are not sexy or exciting. My first conference was a sea of silver-haired older men resplendent in gold chains and red robes. It looked like an elderly cosplay convention. The only other young woman there grabbed my hand to whisper, “we’re definitely not getting lucky tonight”. We didn’t, but we did find a mayor of Marrickville to hit the dancefloor.

Surprisingly, I came to love the job and the passionate debates over dog poo, elaborate schemes to deal with myna birds and eccentrics obsessing over local lore. I’ve aged a lot since then, and so has the infrastructure our councils look after; those ageing assets are causing them more pain than my cankles are causing me.

Take the North Sydney Olympic Pool – heritage-listed in my heart as the site where I won the school 100m backstroke final – an extraordinary feat as I’d scoffed a meat pie and a slushy five minutes before the race. Since those heady days, it had developed concrete cancer and was slushing into the harbour.

There’s understandable fury about the pool and the proposed rate rises by North Sydney and Northern Beaches councils. No one wants to pay more in a cost-of-living crunch, but the anger being whipped up by anti-independent Liberals needs a background check. This is not just a sudden issue, and it’s much bigger than these two councils.

Ratepayers urged the council to cut spending, sell off assets or peddle the naming rights to North Sydney Oval.Credit: Wolter Peeters

President of Local Government NSW and Forbes Shire Mayor Phyllis Miller says more than half our councils are under financial stress. Sydney councils are doing slightly better than regionals thanks to something you probably hate but she envies. Parking meters are cash cows. When you fork out to view the Three Sisters in Katoomba, swim at Balmoral, Manly or Bronte beaches or zip into Surry Hills or Leichhardt for dinner, you are helping keep those councils afloat.

I predict parking increases ahead and rises in hiring costs of sports fields or local halls. Personal trainers and local choirs – get ready.

A state government inquiry recently recommended an overhaul of funding, and a federal inquiry is pending. But while we wait the problems gets worse. Inner Sydney drains clogged during storms last week with knee-deep water. The hideous wall at Collaroy Beach is a legacy of the 2016 storms that left houses close to collapse and washed away toilet blocks at Shelly Beach. Flooding in 2020 inundated bridges and roads along the Hawkesbury-Nepean. Climate change just doesn’t pay for itself, councils do.

And here are more inconvenient truths. Developers held off building as concrete and bitumen prices surged after pandemic supply issues. Councils cannot put off fixing walls, bridges and drains that are unsafe. As costs rise, revenue has not kept pace.

There’s been a lot of creative accounting to hide the cracks that have been forming since the time I was a young reporter. Miller says federal grants are down from 1 per cent of federal taxation revenue in 1996 to half a per cent now. Rate-pegging has limited rate rises, and when the former NSW government amalgamated the councils, it froze rates and staff numbers for three years while wages rose.

“All of this was always going to come back and bite us on the arse and now it has,” she said. Governments seeking re-election have given gifts that have also bitten bottom lines. Tony Abbott has called for a rate boycott on the northern beaches, but he should be glad that when he and former NSW premier Mike Baird wanted to give the council $20 million for upgrading Brookvale Oval it refused the offer. Ratepayers such as Abbott would have had to fork out for ongoing maintenance and depreciation.

Central Coast Council Administrator Rik Hart (appointed when the council was sacked after a financial crisis) has just finished up. He turned down a $30 million commuter car park at Gosford from the former Coalition government because it would have cost the council $2 million a year to maintain.

Hart warns councils: “Those free lunches aren’t free, and any offer must come with ongoing funding.”

Meanwhile, councils have been given more responsibilities and levies. The Local Government Association calculated that hit at $406 for each household in 2021; it will release updated figures soon.

Councils are being told to get back to basics. Forget the snazzy pools with gyms and focus on those unsexy roads, parks and rubbish. Sounds sensible. However, local government is increasingly complex. Councils will be vital if our suburbs are to become denser and not dumber, to ensure high-rise living is not soulless and bland.

The Green Square Library and Plaza in Sydney’s inner south.

In a time of disharmony and disengagement, councils are the level of government closest to our daily lives, helping to provide the community we crave – book clubs at libraries, the men and women’s sheds, the community gardens, assistance for new migrants and the elderly, and sites for playgroups; all glue in our social fabric. I adore Parramatta and Woollahra libraries with their cool design and vibe, and the North Sydney playgroup has fabulous toys and sandpits (but of course you pay to park).

There are always dodgy councillors, but most care for their community. They’re paid an average of $20,000 a year to wade through boring documents and be accosted by angry residents and sovereign citizens. I have sympathy for their plight – those sexy red robes and chains sit heavy in a broken funding system with big problems.

Sarah Macdonald is an author and broadcaster.

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