THE problems faced by Warrnambool City Council are born of history, geography, ideology and Australia's almost incomprehensible three-tiered system of government.
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History in that council finds itself providing services for little more than the fact that it has always or mostly always done so.
Geography in as much as the city is one of Victoria's more "isolated" regional centres, serving as it does - and has - as an epicentre of lucrative agricultural production.
Ideology pertains to the simple question: What role should government play? Simply put, conservative politics believes in small government with private enterprise commercialising and delivering services. The inclusive belief on the left-hand side of politics is that governments - all governments - provide services whether they are commercially viable or not for the benefit of all. Warrnambool City Council displays a mix of both ideologies.
And Australia's three-tier system of government - federal, state and local - as enshrined in the constitution written in the 1890s has become a weird mess in this day and age.
Government reformers point to New Zealand, which has two tiers: federal and local. All well; and good for them but in Australia (roughly speaking), federal government is a policy and payments shop, state governments are service providers and local governments end up with a myriad of functions that are poorly explained and understood.
To better comprehend Warrnambool council's current parlous state, The Standard has today (and in other editions recently) detailed services, how they are funded and what is their actual cost to ratepayers.
The Standard welcomes Friday's announcement of an organisational review, whether it was something new CEO Peter Schneider was always going to do or whether it stems from Mayor Tony Herbert's comments after he was outvoted on pursuing a rates rise is neither here nor there.
The Standard will continue to cover this issue closely so that you, the people of the city and south-west, can help decide what council should do now and into the future.