Firstly there are no ward councilors, because it’s the whole council that makes decisions on your behalf, not just the representative in your area. And under a ward council structure it is impossible to change a council completely.

If you wish to stand for the position of Mayor in the above example, you are elected by the people and if you stand for this position you cannot also stand for ordinary councillor as well.

All voting in both NSW and QLD is supervised by the state electoral commission, not like here where votes are posted back to council and someone in council counts them with no over sighting supervision from the public.

In Hervey Bay in 2011, the council performance had reached an all time low, and the people decided to elect a completely new council which has been since very successful, but whilst you have the structure here, that you have with wards. and no election by rate payers of Mayor, this can never occur, and the position of Mayor will continue to be handed from one existing councilor to another, as it has been for years.

Also in QLD and NSW if your property value needs to be altered, it is carried out by the valuer general in each state every two years and an appropriate certificate issued explaining the reasons for the new valuation! In Bendigo the valuations are carried out by council, which means all you have to do to raise extra rates, is revalue the property, and no certificates are issued.

In Hervey Bay the smallest size you can have for a normal house block is 500 square metres, and the distance from any boundary to the eaves of such a house, must be a minimum of two metres! Think of properties in Bendigo that are on blocks as small as 300 square metres, and nearly have their gutters touching the next door neighbor.

The attitude here is great for developers, and council being able to rate each property to the hilt.

The final item is that no manager employed by council, should be able to overrule council itself, and all works either being carried out or proposed by them, must have approval by council, not letting them rule the roost.

The way things are operating at the moment, in all fairness to rate payers, cannot continue the way it has, otherwise the only way out, is to bring in a state administrator,  and change the rules to conform as it is in other states.

The recent “ Compulsory Organic Bin” introduction and the way it has been forced on the public without overall consultation is deeply unpopular, as I am very sure you will see when it is fully introduced. We had applied for an exemption because we give one neighbor half our vegetable scraps for her worm farm, and another, the other half for their compost bin, and it came back application denied unless supported by photos, an affidavit, and an inspection by council.

At the time we thought if we have to go through all this, we then should downsize our large re-cycling bin to a smaller one to save money only to be told a smaller re-cycling bin is still charged at the same rate as a large one.