Sending a message to Macquarie Street

The report focused on the way most Tweed Shire councillors were elected, finding that they were “puppets” of a developer-controlled group known as Tweed Directions.

The department claims its most important job is to ensure that councils are efficient and sustainable and that they deliver quality services to their communities. But if we think about the democratic nature of councils and the election process, then they should not need watching.

Various calls for the process to be reviewed were made public after Broken Hill was sacked last year for “bad behaviour”.

Then opposition local government spokesman John Turner said it is outrageous to remove local representation for that long and that six months should be enough before new elections were held.

Genia McCaffery from the Local Government Association made the same statement and added the state government should have acted against “individual councillors” rather than sacking the entire council, an option available in Victoria

Broken Hill's federal MP, John Cobb, said he was angry at the three-year appointment of an administrator and that the town of 20,000 had lost its democratic rights.

If Liverpool and Warringah are indicators, then Broken Hill and the other councils coming off the bench in 2012 can look forward to voters sending another strong message to Macquarie Street, unless the process changes before then.