Jamberoo Mt Rd to open
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Kiama Winter Festival
Vietnam Vets remembered
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1 JULY 2023
Greater Cities planning group axed by Minns Local Elder gifts Mayor
The NSW Government has scrapped the Greater Cities Commission (GCC) nearly 12 months after deciding Kiama would be a part of a new ‘Illawarra-Shoalhaven City.’ Premier Chris Minns said the decision was made to reduce overlap and duplication of finite public resources, specifically when it comes to planning and building more houses in the State. “There’s no point having housing targets if you can’t deliver the housing,” Premier Minns said in a statement. “This is about ensuring we have the right team in place to deliver the housing and infrastructure we so critically need in this State.” The GCC was established by the Liberal Party, with Labor’s support, under former Premier Mike Baird, and
was intended to coordinate planning across the State to identify locations for jobs and houses, as well as setting housing targets for 43 local councils. The intent was to transform Sydney into a ‘global city’ rivalling California’s Bay Area, Greater London and the Netherlands’ Randstad. Last year, the commission rebranded to include Wollon-
gong/Illawarra-Shoalhaven in its remit, which would have stretched from Wollongong down to Batemans Bay. At the same time, Jacki Johnson was appointed the City Commissioner for the Illawarra-Shoalhaven. She will continue to assist the NSW Department of Planning and Environment with metro planning, along with the
Kiama Council may have two fewer elected representatives in the future after one of its current Councillors lodged a notice of motion to reduce the number of Councillors from nine to seven. Councillor Mark Croxford lodged the motion, saying that reducing the number of Councillors would improve Council’s efficiency and effectiveness, as well as save $43,460 per annum that could be better spent on
delivering services. Kiama’s population is significantly lower than neighbouring Councils but has a much smaller ratio of residents compared to the number of Councillors. According to data for the 2021 financial year from a NSW Government report called Your Council, Wollongong had 16,637 residents for each Councillor, Shellharbour had 8,695 residents per Councillor and Shoal-
haven had 8,417 people per Councillor. By comparison, Kiama has 2,598 residents per Councillor. “Kiama is classified as a Group 4 Council, along with 25 other Councils in the same classification,” Councillor Croxford says. “Analysis of other Group 4 Councils indicates that Kiama may be considered overrepresented compared to other Councils in the
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Croxford wants fewer Councillors
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If you’ve visited the Kiama Council Chambers recently, you may have noticed two new pieces adorning the desk of Mayor Neil Reilly. The pieces are actually two igneous rocks gifted to Mayor Reilly for his 70th birthday by Aunty Gwenda Jarrett, a local Aboriginal elder and native title lead for the south coast of NSW. Mayor Reilly told The Bugle about the significance of the gift and how his friendship with Aunty Gwenda developed out of a mutual respect for each other. “One of the first people I met formally when I was made Mayor in January 2022 was Aunty Gwenda. We’ve had a very strong connection since then, based on our mutual respect for each other. “We have met maybe once or twice a month since then, and Gwenda and I are very dedicated to making sure there is a mutual respect between the First Nations people and the Council that represents everybody in our local Government area.” Despite requesting no presents for his birthday, Aunty Gwenda and her husband, Uncle Stan, still felt compelled to show their
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appreciation for Mayor Reilly and their relationship. The rocks come from Saddleback Mountain, and were painted by local Indigenous artist Aunty Jodie Stewart, who has also created artwork for NAIDOC Week, which takes place from 2 July to 9 July this year. “The two rocks indicate concentric circles, which mean whoever you are, you’re in the circle, you’re part of this mob,” Mayor Reilly says. “It doesn’t mean you’re an Indigenous person, or a Scottish person, it doesn’t mean anything else other than you’re a part of this
mob, and I think there’s something lovely about that. All these concentric circles representing all the different peoples in our LGA, we’re all the same mob.” “Outside of that is like a yarning circle, and those little U-shaped graphics around the outside. That means that being the same mob, we can and we must talk to each other all the time and be in constant communication. We believe that’s key to being in this mob.” Even though Aunty Gwenda made it clear that these were a personal gift to Mayor Reilly, the rocks will remain continued on p.7
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