Well, if you ever needed that final piece of evidence that local government has had its day, let me tell you a story about Newcastle City Council. 

You may have seen the pictures on social media of a telegraph pole sticking up out of the middle of the road. Yep, it’s as dangerous as it sounds, but how did it happen?

Well, Council decided to curb and gutter the street corner where this power pole stood. Now rather than curb and gutter around it or get Ausgrid to reposition it, they decided to work around it – leaving it standing a few feet out into the middle of an intersection.

Of course, Council is blaming Ausgrid and Ausgrid is blaming Council and the local residents are none the wiser as to when this road hazard will be removed.

It’s a bit like a crew marking lines on a road and going around a dead kangaroo rather than moving it.

Guaranteed the cost of moving this pole now will be considerably higher than it would’ve been had it been done by sensible people and you guessed it, rate payers or energy users will pay for it.

Until we radically revamp our governmental structures, this kind of rubbish will keep happening.

As I always say, councils want to stick their noses into everything these days, but roads, rates and rubbish, their core business, they still can’t get right.