After forcing the amalgamation of Cootamundra and Gundagai Shire councils earlier this year, the NSW state government has added insult to injury by delaying local government elections in amalgamated councils until September 2017. Residents of untouched councils such as Temora, Junee and Wagga went to the polls this weekend to exercise their democratic rights but in here in the Cootamundra-Gundagai Regional Council we had no such opportunity. 

We must wait to have our voices heard for another 12 months. 

This leaves us in administrative limbo. We currently have an administrator who takes advice from an Implementation Action Group and a Local Representation Committee. These bodies are made up of former councillors and members of the public. 

The current structure works but it’s not a council. Our administrator and her advisers keep the council ticking over, doing their best to clean up the mess made by the forced amalgamation but it’s hard to run a council without councillors.

Look at what’s been done in the time since the amalgamation. Yes, the big pot of “this will make it all better” money is being divvied up but nothing else to shape our new council has been achieved. 

It’s taken four months just to get a name. 

To get on with the amalgamation, to get back to normal and to start working towards the future, we need an election. 

Presumably, the rationale behind postponing elections and appointing an administrator for 17 months is to iron out the details and get the amalgamated council to a point where it is ready to be taken up by elected councillors. 

That logic is counter-intuitive, those details are important and people need to have their say during the caretaker period.  

We need our input to be heard as soon as possible in order to shape our new council so that it properly reflects the views of the people. If residents of the Cootamundra-Gundagai Regional Council had gone to the polls this weekend we would now have elected representatives who could shape the future of the council based on a public mandate. Instead, we have 17 months of non-representative government. 

Forcing us to wait another year for an election is the kick in the guts after the sucker punch that was the amalgamation.