Subsequently, a totally hopeless leader.  He alienated everyone who mattered, including the cross-bench and the public, lost a record number of polls in a row and was replaced by someone not quite so irksome; also ineffective, but for different reasons. Tony is still Leader of the Opposition, even though he is in the party in power.

We have two Tony Abbotts in our upcoming council elections. Milton Leslight and Liz Innes were voted in four years ago, and have been playing the role of leader of the opposition since. Unfortunately, the Local Government Act doesn't recognise a role for leaders of the opposition. Council is a team sport - to make change, you have to be inside the tent. They have achieved nothing. Not having the numbers, they haven't stopped anything either. Just wasted everybody's time.

But now, they come to us, asking to be made mayor. What? They couldn't succeed as councillors; how could they possibly excel as mayor? It's the mayor's job to build bridges, not destroy them.

There are at least three very plausible candidates. Look for constructive team-players, not wild-card loners.

On August 17, the Batemans Bay Chamber of Commerce asked aspiring mayors: “If they became mayor at the September 10 elections, what would they do for Batemans Bay?”

Not all those nominated turned up, but some did. It was worth hearing what they had to say, which equaled nothing. There was only one who seemed to know how local government worked. The rest waffled on, saying nothing and offering no commitments to the community which will pay them if elected. A pathetic display of arrogance and self indulgence.   

Peter Bernard (Slippery Slope of Survival, Bay Post, August 10) questions the legitimacy of some figures in the council’s 2013-17 Delivery Program and 2015-16 Operational Plan budgets. The general manager has responded to Mr Bernard and, as his letter has created interest, I provide further explanation.

The council’s delivery program and operational plans are presented in a manner that captures key financial information in accordance with the Local Government Act 1993 (NSW). In the 2015-16 Operational Plan, additional financial information extracted from the council’s independently audited financial statements relating to the movement of investments, such as term deposits, was included. While the information was correct, these detailed figures about consolidated cash flow have not previously been included in the 2013-17 Delivery Program and Operational Plans, as they are not specifically related to funding council’s activities. This has caused confusion when comparing budgets year-to-year. To address the confusion, these figures were removed from the 2016-17 Operational Plan to ensure comparability across all financial years.

All statements are statutorily audited by an independent auditor annually and, in every year of the delivery plan period, the council has received an unqualified audit, meaning the accounts are assessed as being “true and fair”.  These statements are on our website and provided to the NSW Office of Local Government.

I apologise to readers who may have been confused by this, and invite those who would like any aspect of financial reporting explained to phone me on 4474 1205.