My council is one that is speaking of rate rising --

I think it stinks!

Council employees get guaranteed pay rises every year 

There is no performance requirement or pressure for councils to get more efficient 

5 people do the job of 1.

There is waste galore and contracts given to mates 

this is how socialist economies work . All services provided by councils should be privatized 

Only then will  we see rates drop 

Rates in our area are way too high and simply cannot be justified. It's time for far more control over rating and council conduct. Councils are hopelessly inefficient. Despite having exhorbitant rates and appalling performance (our main road would be among the worst in Australia and is NEVER repaired), our councillors are demanding their remuneration be increased by 550%, to match the pay of a neighbouring council that bears NO similarity. Councillors have been sacked for corruption but still hold office - re-elected, apparently, by apathetic ratepayers or because there are simply no decent candidates.

Councils think they are micro empires, they don’t deliver the essentials but can afford to spend on frivolous tripe. 

In reality the Councils are the, empire building, road blocks to our progress. Often taking tens of thousands of dollars in application fees knowing full well that their small panel of voters would veto.

Council rate increases are the same sick game which the health industry is engaged in.  Every year it is above CPI increases.

With regard to councils the procedure is to cry poor when money is being squandered on all sorts of BS.  Never enough is their motto and I have attended many council meeting where they always start with the 'we need more money' lament but never a 'we need to be responsible' commitment.

It doesn't matter which, Local, State or Federal body is involved, all they want is MORE money to waste on objects they want and NOT what the residents want. Roads in my area are the worst I have seen for some time and they don't look like being fixed anytime soon.

Lothario,your comment about socialistism in councils makes me laugh!. How often do we see councillors who are engaged in business and how many have real estate agents in councils. I doubt they are socialists!. I STRONGLY you read a book called the "Game of Mates" by C.K.Murray & P. Frijters and tell me thats not how this country is being run.

For months now Perth City Council has officially been suspended after years of scandal and infighting.. councillors are suspended from acting in their roles for an indefinite period while investigations are being made.

Lord Mayor (Lisa Scaffidi) takes the cake suspended for seven months over breaches of the Local Government Act relating to a failure to declare gifts and travel worth tens of thousands of dollars.

I find it interesting that the Sydney Council areas nominated, are perceived and identified as affluent. By way of Home prices, employment demographics and provision of existing Council services ( Parks, Gardens, Libraries, child care centers etc). Their boundaries are not expanding nor is there unwanted population influx. I recognize the importance of maintaining such services to residents in these Council areas, but also recognize such facility as existing infrastructure does insulate such Councils from the challenge of raising and obtaining new and additional Capital to build anew such infrastructure.  Unlike those many other NSW Council areas where growth and development have run rampant in the past 20 years or so and building up infrastructure is a challenge that provides a fair and identifiable need for increased Council Rates. I believe those Councils nominated in this story are seeking special variations merely for increased revenue/income to match the monetary ambitions of Councillors, Council Management, and executives and already highly paid contracted Council service providers not necessarily or validly to meet current ratepayer needs.

Councils are a miniture form of state or federal governments. Ipswich city council in QLD is being sacked because of corruption findings & turning a blind eye

I have had issues with my council that never have been resolved (and I have no hope it ever will) because the people I communicated with are so grossly inneficient as not to know the basics, such as the written regulations imposed by the council itself.

The great movement of the personnel has a lot to do with it and the appointment of the inept and uninformed as well.

In Bayswater we had a lot of nepotism and that did not help, as the "boys" communicated with one another as in a men's club and sports were given preference (and still do) over the rights of the elderly and handicapped and in my case have confined me to a limited life and they did not even read or know the council laws about the rights of anyone.

After years of trying I have finally given up and could only now, possibly, go to some TV program concerning the rights and wrongs of the people and see if they could shame the  council into doing something like building a small parking or even temporary stopping space for the handicapped besides a public building, not at the base of a hill, so people who cannot walk well can enter the building in a few steps. Or I can completely give up and stop have the recreational activity I pursued in that building (a brige club game) which is also a social activity for many of us. 

I have lately written to my new council representative and she has answered me but, of course, nothing has been done and the explanation was that :"a meeting has not been called about this issue  yet".

After years (since 2012) of trying and discussing and being promised a solution and being observed, car photographed, criticised and humiliated by their treatment, I have decided that is not woth it.

And when my council rates go up, as they do every year, what am I supposed to do? Tell them that I require a solutionbefore nI pay? or simply pay them and forget it, as it seems to be the only way.

This is certainly not demopcracy, it is tyranny!