It’s a sad truth that council bashing is almost a national sport in this country. Local governments prove an easy target and have to face a two-pronged attack: populist state governments on the one hand and scathing media treatment on the other.
As Victorian rate-payers went to the polls last month, the State’s Fairfax daily The Age ran predictably biting coverage, including the hot-headed headline: ‘What’s wrong with our local councils? Everything.’
“So low has public regard for local government fallen,” observed the article, “that seven inner-city councils last month proposed a public relations campaign to justify their existence.”
The campaign in question (put forth by councils including Glen Eira, Stonnington, Bayside, Yarra, Boroondara and Kingston) was shouted down almost immediately. The media jumped at the opportunity to fan the community outrage at the thought that ratepayers’ money would be spent on such a thing. “They should shut up and do their job,” went the familiar chorus. Largely obscured from the analysis was the suggestion that the need for such a campaign was of the State Government’s making (thanks to the rhetoric around rate-capping, etc.)
This is not to suggest that local councils should be free from scrutiny – of course the media needs to fulfil its watchdog duty and councils are not always innocent of wrongdoing. But, assessing the mainstream coverage lately, there seems to be a fundamental ideological misunderstanding of the role and capacity of local government. The temptation to stir populist inklings in readers almost always wins out. However, as financial pressure increases on local government from the top down, continuing to treat councils as a routine kicking bag will become increasingly dangerous.
