It may not be written in stone, but whether we like it or not, it’s always about the politics in an election year.
And it has not taken long for some of our councillors to get into the spirit of things early in the year.
Local government or council elections will be held on Saturday, September 4 this year.
It’s a year later than scheduled, thanks to the pandemic in 2020.
It has mean that for better or worse, some mayors, and all councillors, have enjoyed an extra year in office.
On the other hand, those who are elected to office on September 4 will get a shortened term of just three years, in a bid to return the electoral cycle to its normal timetable.
It’s still early days, and there has been relatively little campaigning by anyone, which makes it hard to get a sense of how things will turn out after the election.
But it’s fair to say that both major political parties could be headed into a bit of a storm as we get closer to polling day.
There’s a lot of disenchantment with the major parties and their preoccupations in Canberra, and in state politics, and that tends to flow on to their colleagues on councils across NSW.
Some of the punters’ concerns relate to transparency and accountability or the lack thereof.
There is also a perception that the major parties are out of touch with the basic concerns of ordinary people trying to survive tough times.
This includes arrogantly spending millions of taxpayers and ratepayers money on things like new logos or on consultants.
But to me the main bugbear for most people, and which will, I think, influence how people will vote on September 4, is believing politicians are taking them for granted between elections.
If this is right, voters will be closely checking out alternatives, such as community groups promising to do the right thing by the local people.
Either way, we are in for some interesting times.
