local politics Archives - Clover Hill Diaries

If you are new to my blog series “You wont believe what happens when the CEO doesn’t like your story ” will give you the back story

What a relief

This morning I woke up to a familiar ping from my calendar – Council Business Papers Released. It’s a standing reminder, set for the second Wednesday of every month. These days, it makes me smile. A quiet kind of relief.

Because for a long time, that ping meant game on.

Like the councillors themselves, I’d be facing anything up to a thousand pages. As the civics reporter for our local paper, I had to work out what mattered most to the community and turn it into two or three solid stories within 24 hours. That was just the start.

The rest of the week meant deep research. Back through past decisions. On the phone to former councillors. Listening to Public Access presentations. Sometimes speaking at them. Sitting in on community advocacy meetings to understand what people were pushing for.

Then came the council meeting itself – usually several hours of policy, politics and process. Lately, it’s felt more like theatre. Half the room auditioning for Utopia. Speeches aimed at the livestream, not each other. Lines delivered for effect, not impact. It’s not about getting things done – it’s about being seen to be doing something.

And after all that, I’d still have to write it up. Fast. The final 48-hour stretch often meant no sleep, just a deadline and the hope that the final version made sense to someone who hadn’t been living and breathing it for days. Then came the next round – usually wondering how long it would take for the CEO to demand the article be taken down. Sometimes I didn’t even get through breakfast.

What I didn’t realise at the time was how completely this cycle had consumed my life. Not just my time, but my attention, my energy, my bandwidth for anything else.

This morning, the reminder was still there – but the pressure wasn’t. I can choose now whether to open the papers. Whether to watch the meeting. Whether to write anything at all.

Better still, I’m no longer trying to figure out what we all aren’t being told.
Turns out, freedom feels like a Thursday morning without a thousand pages waiting for you.

#StopwatchIsTicking #LocalPoliticsUnplugged #WhatArentWeBeingTold #FreedomFeelsGood #CivicsUnfiltered #Kiama #TheBugle #TheBugleNewspaper #TheBugleApp

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This blog unpacks the twists and turns of local democracy in the Kiama local government area. I’m not a councillor, not council staff, and not on any payroll. I’m a community member and former civics reporter for the local paper, and I care about transparency, process and public trust.

The post below is part of an ongoing series examining the drama around the new Gerringong Surf Life Saving Club building, and more specifically, the confusion over who runs what, who approves what, and why something as simple as a kiosk lease has become a political minefield.

If you care about good governance and strong communities, this one’s for you.

What would happen if we called time on the confusion and asked the one question that matters: What is the real stumbling block here?

That’s adaptive leadership. It’s when you stop pretending the issue is a line in the zoning code or the square footage of a kiosk and start talking about what’s actually going on.

Is it pride?

Because let’s be honest: Council is broke. Yet we’re sitting on millions of dollars’ worth of publicly owned assets and powered by thousands of volunteer hours – hours that, if costed, would amount to real economic value.

In Australia, volunteer work is valued at over $17 billion a year. That’s more than the national defence budget. It’s time to ask what that means when decisions are being made, when priorities are being set, and when access to facilities hinges on red tape and unclear communication.

And yet we treat some volunteers as politically convenient and others like they’re lucky to have a garage.

We’ve got Rural Fire Service crews operating out of mouldy sheds while surf lifesaving clubs are securing multimillion-dollar rebuilds and running coffee kiosks from beachfront locations. If you can raise the money and deliver the outcome, well done. If your organisation has the profile and networks to attract support, use them.

But let’s not kid ourselves that this is just a lease issue.

It’s about communication, consistency, and the credibility of those in charge. When a council can’t give straight answers about its own buildings, we don’t get governance. We get guesswork.

Maybe Council is embarrassed. Maybe they feel like they lost control of a project they now have to own. Maybe the surf club knows it has strong public backing and uses that to its advantage. Maybe there’s a bit of “we save lives” moral authority that lets things slide.

But here’s the thing: no one’s sitting down to name it. No one’s saying, Here is the sticking point. Let’s stop spinning and start solving.

That’s the leadership we need. The kind that brings people to the table not to score points, but to actually get the thing sorted.

Because in the end, good governance isn’t about who holds the keys. It’s about who’s willing to ask the hard questions when the doors won’t open the way they should.

#KiamaCouncil #LocalDemocracy #GerringongSLSC #GoodGovernance #CommunityAccountability #CivicLeadership #VolunteerVoices #PublicAssets #CouncilTransparency #LocalPolitics

Tag: local politics

Timing the takedown. How long before the CEO wants it gone?

The real challenge isn’t the lease. It’s the leadership.