How ridiculous. This is not a gift. This is a waste of ratepayers' dollars. You do realise that more then half the owned properties in our area are holiday and investment homes. Spend the money on things that will benefit the Shoalhaven not the richer.

As the Mayor and Joanna Gash rightly pointed out, a large portion of this money will be lost to the area, it provides no benefit for those who rent, and it confuses the funding support from federal and state bodies. It is certainly another tax break for the wealthy. Perhaps it will be a small help for some people for one week if they have a mortgage. The job creation or re-creation potential of the total sum is really impressive. If used together with employment subsidies, great employment results and works results could benefit THIS area, and all residents who use the facilities, and especially those who get jobs from it. Take time for a serious rethink, a rescission motion, and a better use of these funds.

What an utter waste of council money. Why should people from Sydney and Canberra get money for their holiday homes when so much needs to be done here for locals? Borrowing money for such a frivolous reason at a time like this is absurd. Crs Pakes and Guile are deluded if they think individual payments of $300 will alleviate hardship or stimulate the economy. Cr Gash is correct as it is "immature" and the action of childish populists. Certainly borrow money and use that money to employ currently unemployed people to work on bushfire remediation projects in the Shoalhaven: that sort of "new deal" has a proven record of success. Anything else is nonsense.

It would have been better to spend $17.5 million on very poor roads.

I'm shocked to hear about this ill-considered and inequitable waste of C\council funds. As pointed out by both the Mayor and Cr Gash, a large proportion of the proposed 'gift' money will go to entities living outside of the region who are neither struggling, nor likely to spend it in the local community. It reeks of the special interests which unfortunately have come to characterise some councillors' dealings for too long.

By no stretch of the imagination could it be thought that property owners need assistance more than renters, and it is well known that needy families will spend extra income immediately and locally, whether it comes through job creation or direct assistance. As a ratepayer I urge a rethink.

I would rather see this money go towards employment by council to have the roads, parks, and beach fronts cleaned up. Also more garbage bins around tourist areas and beaches. Another choice is more rangers to patrol the beach areas in summer to control people camping and dogs on the beaches.

I would prefer the money to be spent on roads, paths, infrastructure in our region. The money would be spent in the Shoalhaven community. We would receive more bang for our buck, not going outside our community due to holiday home ownership.