Are you paying too much in Council rates? News from the 2022-2023 Hawkesbury Council Budget

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PaFMOMniUkw Hawkesbury Council's rating system is broken and unfair. However, there are developments I'd like to share with you. For context, I've been advocating for reform of our rating system since I was first elected to Council in 2016: October 2020 - Defeated in the effort to ensure fairer Hawkesbury Council Rates May 2020 - New land valuations…

Defeated in the effort to ensure fairer Hawkesbury Council Rates

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6TEPAWxhUr8 Last night the Mayor moved a Mayoral Minute to try to make our rating system fairer. We failed. The vote was defeated 8:4. Some suburbs in the Hawkesbury are suffering under Council rates that are anywhere between 50% higher to 300% higher or more than other suburbs. This is despite those families having similar incomes and…

New land valuations give little relief for rates in most Hawkesbury suburbs

Residents around the Hawkesbury should be receiving their latest land valuation letters from the Valuer General. I got mine this week. I'll be making a more detailed analysis when some details crystallise, but since it's already been mentioned on social media, let me get some data out to you. Every few years, the VG revalues your land. It has nothing to do with the improved value of…

Lost opportunities and broken promises – The case for change

Today, I bring you the editorial I wrote for the August edition of the Hawkesbury Post. Between them, Liberal and Labor have held the Mayoralty on Hawkesbury Council for seventeen of the last twenty years, with effective control of the chamber. Some would say, it shows. Before the Parties got their stranglehold on Council, many people remember the popular mayorship of the late Dr Rex Stubbs,…

The Cure for Toxic Politics is just an Election Away

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bshGPBd1u-o Today, I bring you an editorial column I was invited to write for the latest edition of the Hawkesbury Post. Check out the online edition of the paper here, or pick up your free print copy from the usual places. And please; support the local businesses that advertise in our local paper! "Have you noticed how nasty politics has become? I’m tired of…

The 2024 Federal Redistribution for Macquarie – for people in a hurry!

On June 14th the Australian Electoral Commission released their proposed new seat boundaries in NSW for the upcoming Federal election. You may have seen headlines about the seat of North Sydney being abolished, and NSW losing a seat overall in the Parliament, but what does the redistribution mean for people living in the Hawkesbury and the Blue Mountains, in the seat of Macquarie? I've crunched…

Should the Hawkesbury become part of the Sydney ant-hill?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QK25IlwYams The March edition of the Hawkesbury Post contains a text version of this article. This video version is intended as a richer, shareable version. . As a high school teacher, I like to run a lesson about an obscure concept called ‘the Tragedy of the Commons’. It starts with buying milk at the shops. There you are in Coles or Aldi. Two bottles of…

Council a step closer to honouring its pledge to seal Packer Road

Back in 2018, Council applied for (and got) a "Special Rate Variation" that put everyone's Rates up by a third. I voted against that rate rise, as I have voted against every tax hike proposed by Council since I was elected in 2016. However, I did agree that a list of proposed capital works – improvements to local roads among them, was absolutely necessary so that the ratepayers could see where…

Upon leaving the Liberal Party

MEDIA RELEASE Tuesday, 5th September 2023 PDF version of this statement MEDIA COVERAGE UPDATE: This story has received some coverage in the Press and I am gratified that it has been so balanced and supportive. Mayor behind Liberal Councillor’s dumping (Sept 5th) Zamprogno finds support, two more councillors publicly attacked by McMahon (Sept 8th) Liberal Party move to expel Councillor…

The Australian Local Government Assembly – What Hawkesbury can learn from a bigger picture, especially as it relates to natural disasters

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mGNnTV7AGxE   Just before the floods overtook us all, I attended the Australian Local Government Assembly (ALGA) down in Canberra, an annual conference that pulls together the 537 local governments around Australia. Our focus is the bigger picture of local government as it relates to the nation as a whole – a perspective that I believe my colleagues…

A Fairer Rating System

A Fairer Rating System Your Council rates have skyrocketed during this Council term. I voted against every rate rise, and against the changes to the rating formula that made matters worse. This Council rammed through a Special Rate Variation that jacked up everyone's rates by a third. Then it moved the "Base Rate" - a flat fee that evens out rates between families of equal income,…

Re-elect Councillor Nathan Zamprogno

Before you vote... A letter from Councillor Nathan Zamprogno Even if you vote Liberal or Labor, it is clear most people prefer Council to be above “party politics” – to be free to stand up to other tiers of Government when they try to impose growth, drive through highway projects, cost-shift to Councils, fail to invest in infrastructure, or impose unfair…

Australian Councils deserve more help from the Federal Government

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rbe8jx6TE3E I'm down in Canberra at the 27th National General Assembly of Local Government, and it's been a valuable experience. My head is swimming with statistics - the presentations have been excellent, covering the effects of COVID (both economic and health), initiatives to make communities more resilient, new technologies that aid in…

The NSW Productivity Commission White Paper and Local Government

The recently released NSW Productivity Commission report released by the NSW Treasurer Dominic Perrottet Being a good local government representative means understanding the landscape that Councils inhabit, and the way we interact with other tiers of government. So, it's well to pay attention when the State Government announces potential shifts in policy. Constitutionally, Local…

Mental health, psychological abuse and health regulation

I'm putting this post here to welcome those who are arriving at my site as a result of being quoted and linked in the August 2020 piece on VICE titled "I lost my wife to a cult", which is, sadly, the story of what happened to my own family. It's a tragedy, and painful to recount, and something I've tended to be private about with respect to my role as an elected Councillor. I consented to…

Op Ed: The commercialisation of national icons

I read once that there’s an ancient tomb in Rome inscribed with a plea: ‘Bill-poster, I beg you, pass this monument by. If any candidate's name is ever painted here, may he suffer defeat and never get an office.’ Strangely, that’s what I recall when I see the commentariat, furious this week over the use of the Opera House sails to advertise an event; in this case, a horse race. Some…

We have a new Mayor!

It is timely to have a word about tonight’s vote for the Mayor and Deputy Mayor. I witnessed some truly awful behaviour from the gallery in Council, so this is where I stand. The Liberal Councillors are four among twelve. We collaborate as best we can. But in this term, having no majority, our lot is limited to choosing the least worst from options put before us by others. We…

Demanding clarity on the future of the Hawkesbury

(Edit-- 27th June: The motion I put to Council on the 26th passed 11 votes to 1. Audio of the debate can be accessed below:) Original post: The whole messy process that has unfolded since March about road corridors has brought the issue of development in the Hawkesbury into focus. Everyone can see the  massive surge of housing and commercial building that has marched down Windsor Road and is…

Hawkesbury Council gets 2018 underway with a bang

After the unqualified success of Hawkesbury's Australia Day celebrations down by the river, the first Hawkesbury Council meeting of 2018 occurred on Tuesday night and went from 6:30pm and until well after 1am. A number of issues of consequence to local residents were on the agenda. Thankfully, now that Council is "podcasting" its meetings (a move I pushed for and endorsed), I can bring you the…

Hawkesbury landowners get extended deadline for review of their land value

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9bwf7QCqn5o "In this episode, a climactic meeting with the Valuer General, plans to secede from the Hawkesbury, and a ray of hope for people who have endured massive rate rises, but only if you act now. In my last video I described how thousands of Hawkesbury ratepayers have been hit with a big rise in their Council rates. I described how the 23% of our…

Video blog – Hawkesbury Council rate rises and the Valuer General

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2DSS0kkmctI Further to an earlier post on Hawkesbury Council's rates rises, I've done some further analysis on the factors contributing to sharp rate rises for many Hawkesbury ratepayers, especially those in Oakville, Maraylya and Vineyard. The maps referenced in the above video can also be downloaded here. CLICK FOR PDF FILE - Hawkesbury Council Rate rises…

Are some Hawkesbury residents paying too much tax?

Angry residents demand answers at a community consultation session at Pitt Town The hot-button issue this month is that rate notices arriving in the letterboxes of many Hawkesbury ratepayers show that their rates have risen sharply, while other suburbs have had a modest decrease. And by "risen sharply", I mean doubled or tripled from this time last year. The worst example I found was a…

Elected to Hawkesbury River County Council

At the Council meeting held on October 11, 2016 a preferential ballot was held to elect the Council's delegates to the Hawkesbury River County Council. I am pleased to say I was elected as one of Council's two delegates for the four year term. The County Council operates effectively as a Council body in its own right, and its elected representatives are sent from the Councils in Hawkesbury,…