THE councillors who attended the Local Government Conference this week in Coffs Harbour have been accused by Cr Andrew Guile of not arguing in favour of the sell-off of electricity poles and wires in NSW.
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The conference carried a motion to oppose the leasing of electricity infrastructure, something Cr Guile thought should have been embraced.
He said it was “effectively refusing the $6 billion of infrastructure spending for non-metropolitan councils”.
“What is hard to believe is that the representatives of the Shoalhaven just sat there and said nothing in defence of a policy that should bring incredible benefits to regional areas like the Shoalhaven,” he said.
“It is just embarrassing given what we should be achieving so much, that Crs [Patricia] White and [Lynette] Kearney have sat on their hands all day, never even attempting to make a comment on the proceedings.”
However Cr White said there were a few loose ends in the poles and wires lease that could financially impact on ratepayers.
She also said she had to compete with more than 500 other delegates to debate issues.
“Selling off poles and wires was not in the original motion,” she said.
“It was a recommendation put up by Bankstown City Council calling on the state to introduce a service-level regulation for street lighting.
“At present there isn’t any regulation as to who maintains street lights, but Endeavour does it,” Cr White said.
“Councils are concerned if poles and wires are privatised they might end up having to pay to maintain street lights.”
A debate at the end regarding future conferences overwhelmingly supported the need for more time to debate issues.
Shoalhaven tabled three recommendations which were debated. They were support for paper mill jobs, industrial award pay rates of council business opportunities, and training and development for people hoping to enter local government.
“We put in a recommendation to NSW procurement to assist in protecting Australian Paper jobs by purchasing paper for local government,” Cr White said.
“Some Greens from city councils opposed it. One of the other Sydney councils told us to get over losing jobs, it happened to the motor industry so it will happen to paper industry. I was shocked.
“The paper mill debate was fiery but the recommendation did get up.
“I congratulate Cr Greg Watson who had the facts and figures, he was very good at debating it,” she said.
