Voting for the unloved

Unless you're a land developer, a candidate or a political tragic the NSW local government election next Saturday September 8 will be about as exciting as a strand of used dental floss.

Candidates get excited because they can campaign on what they think are really interesting issues - Sydney city has a candidate campaigning on legal public nudity. And another group calling themselves the Sex Party (they got a run on one of the morning TV shows). Dubbo city has posters all over town imploring citizens to vote for Muppets. Yep, furry puppets. Hilarious. Sydney's Auburn has candidates at pre-polling stations beating down on each other and taking out apprehended violence orders. Not so funny but relatively exciting.

Developers get excited because they back candidates into council so they can get zoning changes done and so they can build large housing estates where no-one wants to live.

Political tragics get excited because they can dwell on the question of why no one is interested in the most important 'grassroots' level of politics in the country.

Why is no-one interested? What is it about local government and local councils that make them so unattractive?

As long as the potholes get repaired and the rubbish gets collected, what else do councils do?

Councils were established universally in the late 19th century to fund roads in outer urban and regional and rural areas.

One might go a long way today to find a council that invests in roads other than the filling in of potholes and patching over of weather-damaged sections.

So why is local government so stupendously boring?

Part of the answer lies in the way councils and councillors communicate. Most of them are not very good at it. They are still locked in to a 19th century mentality where the importance of roads, drainage and the collection of human waste was paramount in the building of towns and cities.

To get a sense of the poor communication take a look at the advertising being created by candidate for Saturday's election. They buy space in their local newspaper. They design an advertisement that has a large mugshot with a few words to describe their goals – words that usually bear no relationship to what happens when they get elected.

Integrity. Transparency. Community. Family. Vision. Experience. Making a Difference.