600 words (4 minutes reading time) by Tim Whistler

When reading local government plans, you could be forgiven for thinking that The Secret (2006) was a management manual: “ask, believe, and receive”. It is hard to see how some councils think they will make a difference from the way they plan.

To be fair, I agree that councils usually aren’t intentionally stupid or reckless. They’re juggling rate caps, grant uncertainty, ageing assets, and a community that wants more of everything. They are under pressure, and when it comes to their long-term plan, the temptation is to plug the spreadsheet gaps with “efficiency dividends” and “future asset sales” and hope it all works out.

But that doesn’t make it strategic. I call it Plan–Do–Hope.

Council plans

When I look at the 10-year plans that councils are releasing, I wonder how much connection they have to the reality most ratepayers experience.

I can’t imagine those same ratepayers copying the council by hoping that their income will go up next year because someone will give them more money; wishing that their expenses will go down without making lifestyle changes; and then acting on those assumptions by spending more money now (even if they have to borrow it).

I was reading my local council’s plan and in the next 10 years it has $1 million a year of savings budgeted from an “efficiency dividend”, but no information about what the efficiencies will be or how they might affect services. All the plan says is that they will be based on “decisions made strategically through the annual budget process”.

If your council plan has an “efficiency dividend”, I challenge you to point to one service where they have made changes so you get the same service and they use less resources. If you can’t find one, it’s not about efficiency. It’s just wishful thinking with a number attached.

My council goes further. They are also planning to sell $32 million of unspecified assets, with half of the proceeds to go towards capital works and the other half to cover operating expenses. Talk about selling the farm to buy hay!

“The Shire holds $3.7 billion in assets, including ageing stock that requires increasing maintenance, renewal, or in some cases closure. Asset utilisation analysis is required to better align infrastructure with community demand.”

That’s not analysis. It’s more wishful thinking, this time dressed up as strategy.

The council seems to think they can sell assets that they say people don’t use, and that they will be able to do it without objection. That thinking looks safe on a spreadsheet, but anyone with experience of asset sales knows it’s explosive once real people and real places are involved. In the past, these lists have included the old swimming pool, or a small out-of-the-way branch library, or a block of land zoned residential and used as a park but considered “surplus” in the open space plan.

I challenge councillors to imagine they are fronting a public meeting and listing, one by one, the $32 million of “surplus” assets you plan to sell in the next decade. Would you still be comfortable with that line in the plan?

These financial plans expose the real gap between what communities want their councils to do, and what councils think they should be doing. Councils talk about “community outcomes” and “customers first”, but then make decisions from the top, rather than really listening to the community.

What would Check–Plan–Do look like instead?

• Check: Start with real demand. What are people actually asking for? Where are you failing them now?
• Plan: Decide what to stop, start or change so that people continue to get the services they need and expect. Then cost that honestly.
• Do: Try changes on a small scale, learn from them, and only then (when you know how to do it and that it works) put it into the 10-year plan.

If your 10-year plan doesn’t start from real demand and doesn’t explain what will change in the way services work for people, it is Plan–Do–Hope.

Going a step further, if you’re a councillor, I challenge you to ask yourself: would you be happy if your own household budget was planned the way you’re planning the budget for your community?