July 3rd, 2026Just sayin’…

As a journalist, I love it when the Community Satisfaction Survey is released. It’s the gift that keeps on giving, and as long as I have been editing The Local – Hepburn Shire Council has done pretty poorly.

So, you know, it makes for a good story, I can always use the ‘can’t get no satisfaction’ headline and this time I even added in a few lyrics from the Rolling Stones’ song.
But as a ratepayer, it is really annoying, because my rates are just not being used as well as they could. According to the survey anyway.
This year seems to be about the worst. And Hepburn Shire Council acknowledges they are not providing satisfaction, because, as CEO Bradley Thomas says, the community has let them know in no uncertain terms.
Mr Thomas says the council is doing its best and just needs more time. But the survey says the overall performance score is the worst in 10 years. Just how much time do we give them.
Now, I am not suggesting anyone is not doing their best. I know people who work for council and I believe they are, individually, doing their best. But as a team effort, it is clearly not working. And the CEO, as the head of the organisation, takes the brunt of the complaints. Probably followed by the councillors. Who we voted in. So no-one is blameless.
I guess, going forward, we have to collectively think about the future. Is our council viable as it stands? Can it continue to rate so poorly – and now pretty much run out of funding.
For a long time, Cr Brian Hood has pointed out the shortfalls of the budgets, past, present and future. And some people have listened and some have not. But perhaps in the future, or lack of, our pools will have people finally taking notice.
Yes, our pools are an important part of our community. Great for kids and families, people who want to swim a few laps, or just catch up with friends poolside. But they are end of life now. Pretty much already on life support and with no funding to fix let alone replace them.
The council, at its meeting last week, agreed that an amount of $150,000 per pool was available for urgent repairs. But we all know that $150,000 does not go far, and on top of that, it has not even been budgeted for. Council Infrastructure and Delivery director Bruce Lucas told the meeting that if needed, the money would have to be “found”.
Mr Lucas said: “It’s not an allocation provided for within the draft budget. It is a referenced trigger threshold, if you like, to guide officers on any works needed after the commencement of the pool season, where we might find we have some major failing of the infrastructure and the $150,000 threshold would need to be found if it were needed. A threshold or a guide for officers to know to what level to invest in to undertake the necessary repairs should we find some major failings.”
(Hmmm. Long-winded way to say ‘let us know if there is a problem – but we have no money to fix it. This sounds very much like my own financial planning – which is to win TattsLotto one day. Kyle says this is not a sound plan. And even I struggle with the idea of finding up to $450,000 all up “if needed”.)
The council also voted to create a shire-wide community panel to talk about the future of the pools saying it was not their place to decide on what happened in the years to come.
But surely it is their place? Is that not why we voted them in – to make decisions, hard and easy, on our behalf. After all, a huge amount of money has already been spent on consultants and reports about the future of aquatics in the shire.
But no, let’s throw that out and ask people with no particular knowledge of running public pools or financial management, what they think about the future of pools – and let’s throw in natural waterways as well. Grrr.
I don’t know the answer, and I did stand for council once although I am very glad I did not get in, but surely it is time we started asking the hard questions about the viability of our shire and our council.
Amalgamation could be one answer, maybe the state government could send in administrators for a few years to straighten it all out. I know that seems harsh but there is only so long that life support lasts – and I think it might not just be the pools that are end of life. Call time perhaps? Just sayin’…

(Image just for cuteness…)