Council Connect: 16 May 2025

Published on 16 May 2025

Hi, I'm Digby Rayward, and it's my pleasure this week to present Council Connect.

When I last spoke, it was raining, and I don't think it's stopped raining since. I think it's going to rain for another week or so. It certainly played havoc with our road crews, and we know water and roads do not mix, so you'll have to just bear with us while the crews work through this. They're doing the best they can.

So there's lots of things happening and going on. We were going to have the sod-turning event for the commencement of the new Clarence Town Bridge, but it was too wet. So we've decided to put it off for a week or two until it gets a bit drier and we get a spade in the ground, not in the mud. It's great to see the progress already started on the new Clarence Town Bridge, the guys getting a solid platform, but unfortunately, the weather is affecting them as well.

Then on to another thing, Council staff, I, and several other Councillors visited all the towns and villages across the Shire over the last week or so with the Community Information Sessions. You may think these were a bit paper-heavy, but they had so much important information, including the capital works program, outlining which roads will be done over the next four years. Some villages got very involved and argued why their roads should be done instead of someone else's. It's always a big argument that my potholes are deeper than your potholes, right? But with limited resources, our crews do the best they can to make sure that the most important ones are done as well as they can. But they do have limited resources. But anyway, they went well and were well presented by the staff. I was a bit disappointed by the community numbers, but they were still good. And if you're quick, if you want to put a submission in, they finish today, so hurry before it’s too late.

Last week, the General Manager, the Deputy Mayor, and I went to Sydney for a couple of days listening to presentations from politicians. When you're sitting there, you're thinking, he's a lobbying opportunity I might be able to get in there somewhere, right. And certainly, as a follow-up to that, the General Manager and I met with Brett Whitworth, the Deputy Secretary of the Office of Local Government yesterday. He is also on the new Grants Commission, which says where the financial assistance grant money from the federal government is distributed at state level. Now we had the opportunity for two hours to tell him how they got it wrong. You can rest assured he fully understood our position at the end of that time, and we will follow up on that. We can keep banging the drum, but with a small council like this, we just have to have a larger voice, which I can assure you, we're doing our best.

Now moving on a bit, you heard me talk about developing a stronger partnership with Hunter Water last time I was speaking with you. The point we were making there was that they clearly have a business to run, and the elected Councillors in this Dungog Shire similarly have a business to run. Now, Hunter Water’s business is to provide and sell potable water to the residents of the lower Hunter and they do this very well. In the financial year 2023, they had a net profit of $40.2 million after tax. Very well done! They also gave a dividend of $26.9 million to the state government, because the state government owns them, so that side of the business is going well for them and for the state government. But due to the unique position of Dungog, we supply 80% of this potable water for the lower Hunter. This is a point I made with you last week, and I made with Hunter Water. With that, we get no recognition of the part we play, and no recognition of the financial burden on the community and council, with restrictions on development applications and the time of staff assessing these applications. You can be assured we'll be taking these discussions further at the appropriate level. I think we'll have to go up the chain a little bit, and we'll certainly be looking for a level of recognition and financial compensation for the role that our shire plays in this.

 I was also fortunate enough to be invited to inspect the work being done at the Newcastle Airport. There's a lot of expansion there to get international flights happening, and the spin-off from that, for the community, will be travel. With this increased overseas visitation, there will be an opportunity for tourism coming into Dungog. And I've obviously said, if you're flown into Newcastle, why would you go anywhere else but Dungog, right. So Dungog tourism opportunities are there, and also there will be freight opportunities going out of the area, which could be agricultural. I’m sure as this business develops, there'll be new business opportunities for both tourism and agriculture too, and freight opportunities. Business we won't know, or haven't identified yet. So let's hope Dungog gets part of that action as it goes forward.

Also a big shout out to the volunteers in the Shire. Next week is Volunteers Week, and as we know, the Shire would not be the same place without these volunteers who work across many, many areas. The soul of a Shire is the volunteers and the people who act selflessly for others. I was privileged to be invited to the Palliative Care Volunteers morning tea the other day in Dungog, which marked 30 years of palliative care service in the Shire, and that's an excellent service they provide. When you think about the compassion those people have in looking after those who are not as well off as many others, they do a great job. But certainly, the other volunteers across everything, there are so many, I don’t want to start naming them. Well done to you all and good luck.

Well, I guess that's enough for me this time. So stay dry if you can, and I'll catch you next time. Cheers.