Rachel Russell - Wingecarribee

26/05/2026

OUR NEXT CONCERT - 17TH OF JUNE 2026. 🎷🎻🪈

10.30AM at St Jude's Anglican, Bowral

$25 entry, cash at the door.

We hope to see you all there 🥳

Wingecarribee Shire Council

25/05/2026

Well done to this Wingecarribee resident for staying solution-focused in her fight for NSW government support to back business integrity, and through her own struggle, calling for how we can get justice across the board for homeowners.

With NSW State Government considering more and more fast-track approval pathways, I agree with Bella that we want to make sure we have the checks and balances in place to help ensure quality building practices are encouraged.

Accountability matters.

I’ve signed in support. Will you?

NSW Government: Strengthen Consumer Protections in Residential Building

24/05/2026

At the 20 May 2026 Council meeting I lead a ‘Notice of Motion’ to amend the Mayor’s existing consultant policy as it excluded ‘technical’ briefs. Arguably, exclusion of ‘technical’ briefs appears to have undermined the intention of the Mayor’s policy: Management chose to define the AEC Financial Sustainability consultant review ‘technical’.

When I introducing this NoM for discussion, I used the wording from the Mayor’s own original Minute:

“Councillors have a clear role in making strategic and policy decisions. One way that this can occur is through the provision of briefs for the engagement of consultants for projects that have significant and long-term strategic impacts on our community. Council engages consultants to undertake work on its behalf from time to time for work where there is a need to engage expertise not found in Council (e.g economists) and/or because of grant opportunities and/or where additional resources are required.”

I accepted an amendment from Cr Champion to further tighten and clarify the updated intention of this proposal

However, as is clear from the recording of the Council meeting at the conclusion of the debate, the Mayor did not see fit to tighten the policy.

It will be interesting to track how many consultant briefs come to Council in future for our input.

24/05/2026

The NSW Minister for Planning, the Honourable Paul Scully, has presented a report with his key findings regarding necessary improvements to our .shire.council DA process. The Ministers recommendations mirror the systemic challenges that community members - mums and dads, town planners and business owners who have submitted DAs have been sharing with me. Since our election, knowing that this issue was the Mayor’s core reason for running for Council, rather than drive the issue myself I have offered the Mayor guidance to ensure he understands the role of Mayor is not to take full responsibility for DAs, but to hold Management to account regarding Council’s performance on DAs, including the section 68s for water & sewer that are required to obtain a construction certificate. He didn’t listen, instead telling me the GM and Director had it all under control. The community and the Minister’s report tell otherwise. I feel I have been very measured to this point, and now I find we are in a critical situation with a risk of losing our planning powers. Consequently, at the May 20 Council meeting, I felt I needed to spell out our role to the Mayor even more clearly than previously. We need to be leading this Council: setting the tone from the top with clear expectations, and driving cultural change to ensure the GM is on notice to make the organisational changes required: so we have a chance of meeting the Ministers timeframes, and the needs of of the community we are elected to represent and serve.

24/05/2026

The Mayor, as per election promises, brought policy for more accountability on consultants in November 2024, however his policy excluded ‘technical’ briefs. I sought to amend that in May 2026 to ensure we have the checks and balances in place to build community confidence and trust in Council. Thank you Mark for speaking to my colleagues on this, and Cr Moylan, Cr Champion and Deputy Mayor Foley for their support. Unfortunately the Mayor did not support the proposal , and the rest of his voting bloc voted it down. Key question, how is the Mayor being accountable to our community?

23/05/2026

I would like to commend Sara Moylan. Councillor at Wingecarribee Shire Council for her leadership in bringing forward this urgent business to thank our State Emergency Service (Emergency & Rescue) on National WOW (Wear Orange Day).

Thank you to all the volunteers who show up, time and again, in support of your mission to help save lives and create safer communities.

Your service is invaluable.

NSW SES
NSW SES Wingecarribee Unit
NSW SES Moss Vale Unit

15/05/2026

CONSULTANTS

I believe our community expect us, as their elected representatives, to improve accountability and transparency around how public money is spent on hiring consultants.

Am I right?

The staff response on the business paper argues that my proposal for consultant hire above $100k to come to meetings will hamper administration and blur the distinction between the role of the governing body and the role of Council administration.

What are your thoughts?

As the Mayor’s adopted motion that I’m suggesting we amend excluded “technical” reports, management felt that Councillors didn’t require input into the scope of our Financial Sustainability Review worth $152K as it was a ‘technical report’.

Do you think adopting my Motion might help build our community’s trust in Council?

WIN News Illawarra
Radio 2ST
ABC Illawarra
Highland FM 107.1
The Southern Wire
Friends of Wingecarribee

WingecarribeeShireCouncil localgovernmentmatters

15/05/2026

CONSULTANTS

I believe our community expect us, as their elected representatives, to improve accountability and transparency around how public money is spent on hiring consultants.

Am I right?

The staff response on the business paper argues that my proposal for consultant hire above $100k to come to meetings will hamper administration and blur the distinction between the role of the governing body and the role of Council administration.

What are your thoughts?

As the Mayor’s adopted motion that I’m suggesting we amend excluded “technical” reports, management felt that Councillors didn’t require input into the scope of our Financial Sustainability Review worth $152K as it was a ‘technical report’.

Do you think adopting my Motion might help build our community’s trust in Council?

WIN News Illawarra
Radio 2ST
ABC Illawarra
Highland FM 107.1
The Southern Wire
Friends of Wingecarribee