The recent stalemate in WA politics, with the National Party holding the balance of power and in a position to dictate whether the ALP would cling to power or their traditional coalition partners would be able to form the first non-Labor state government in Australia, may paradoxically hold the clue to the ongoing role of councils in NSW.
The sand gropers have a history of doing things ‘their way’ and the opportunistic demand for an extra $675m of regional spending, by the WA National’s leader Brendon Grylls, for perhaps the first time in recent years has created a real nexus between an area’s voting power/financial importance and its fair share of state expenditures.
For many years the industrial heartlands of NSW, the Hunter, Illawarra and Western Sydney have furnished the necessary seats for the ALP to maintain a vice like grip on power in Macquarie Street but have universally been overlooked and ignored when it came to funding the necessary transport infrastructure and hospitals the areas cried out for.
It must be said the unprecedented upheavals in ALP leadership have elevated a number of ‘westies’ - most notably Nathan Rees to premier and an Illawarra son to the troubled transport portfolio – although the demise of Matt Brown and Noreen Hay has tarnished what could otherwise have been a much needed resurgence in local relevance on the South Coast.
However whether the better representation in terms of cabinet ministers will translate into much needed extra funds for their loyal and long suffering constituents time will tell; but based on history not many will be holding their breaths and then the WA solution may become a real option for these disillusioned voters next time they go to the polls.
Certainly a die-hard ALP voter will never ever side with the Libs, and vice versa; but the option of a truly independent ‘Independent’ candidate perhaps even a Green a la Tasmania’s Senator Bob Brown but one who’s prepared to also hold out for much needed roads and social services could be the answer.
The ICAC enquiry (still waiting for the final report) revealed an ingrained and inherently questionable link between land developers and the political/planning processes many believe could be cut by simply severing the existing council/state ALP connection.
The dominance of local councils by the ALP in NSW must now be seriously questioned and the appropriateness of mixing the levels of government and utilising councils as some type of learning ground and guaranteed career path for future state/national pollies curtailed.
If our new Premier does not restore some credibility and transparency to local politics before he finally has to front up for an election his legacy will be to either leave the state’s councils in the hands of a procession of undemocratically elected administrators or by default see the emergence of a brand new political landscape characterised by numerous minor parties and the end of bloc voting and union power as we now know it. | 
