Cessnock Council: Ignoring Residents While Raising Your Rates
Cessnock Council proved tonight what everyone suspected: they don’t work for the people. They work for themselves. Your voice? Your money? Your concerns? Irrelevant.
They just voted to send an application to IPART for a 39% special rate increase—that’s right, nearly 40% more out of your pocket—based entirely on the advice of a consultant professor who makes a fortune telling councils what they want to hear. And how much did that advice cost you? $90,000. Ninety thousand dollars for a report that exists solely to justify spending more of your money.
Meanwhile, the same council shelved a motion to scrap Net Zero initiatives—initiatives that could have saved thousands. So they’ll happily make you pay more, but they won’t even try to save a single dollar themselves. They won’t live within their means. They won’t make a tough choice. They won’t take responsibility.
Instead, they point fingers at previous councils. “It’s not our fault,” they say. “Look at what was left behind.” That’s not leadership. That’s cowardice. That’s a council hiding behind excuses while residents pay the price.
This council isn’t managing money. They’re managing blame. They enrich consultants, protect an organisation that serves itself, and pat themselves on the back for being “responsible,” while taking your wallet in hand.
Let’s be clear: this is arrogance. Pure, unfiltered arrogance. Residents are punished. Ratepayers are fleeced. Every notice you receive now is a reminder: this council refuses to live within its means, refuses to make hard choices, refuses to put the people first.
Leadership means responsibility. It means making decisions that protect the people who pay your salary. It means cutting waste. It means looking at the numbers and saying, “We can do better.” This council? They do none of that.
They call themselves leaders, but the truth is stark: they are bureaucrats who work for themselves. They’re accountants for their own self-interest. They thrive on excuses. They thrive on the appearance of action while doing nothing. And they’re happy to take your money in the process.
You pay your rates. You expect them to be used wisely. And instead? They spend $90,000 on consultants. They raise your rates by nearly 40%. They ignore cost-saving measures. All while blaming someone else for their failures.
This vote isn’t just a rate hike. It’s a warning. It’s a signal that Cessnock Council puts itself first, and you last. And unless residents demand change, this pattern will continue. More money. More excuses. More arrogance.
Cessnock Council isn’t broken by accident. It’s broken by design. And the ones paying the price are the people who thought democracy meant having a say.
It’s time to hold them accountable. It’s time to stop tolerating this. Because right now, your council is not listening—and they don’t care to.