News
7 June, 2026
Council ‘an experiment that didn’t work’
Local broadcaster Graeme Day has a launched a scathing attack on Wingecarribee Shire Council, describing it as ‘an experiment that didn’t work’.
Local broadcaster Graeme Day has a launched a scathing attack on Wingecarribee Shire Council, describing it as ‘an experiment that didn’t work’.
Mr Day – a former Shoalhaven City councillor – was a guest speaker at last Tuesday night’s meeting of the Southern Highlands Community Forum in Bowral.
He also accused council of using ‘smoke and mirrors’ to hide its failures – particularly in relation to DA processing times.
“This is an experiment that did not work and this experiment started back in the days of (Administrator) Viv May introducing a new council to the area,” Mr Day said.
“There was a lot of hope. We were very disappointed with the council that was stood down, but there was a lot of hope.”
Mr Day said that when the election came around in 2024, voters turned towards candidates “they probably didn’t know too well”.
“And as you can probably tell, people are a little bit upset about certain councillors that were voted in and a certain mayor that was voted in”.
He was particularly critical of Mayor Jesse Fitzpatrick.
“Now I think the situation is, with our current mayor, he did everything and anything to get into the room and when he got there, didn’t know what to do.
“And when you don’t know what to do you rely on someone and I believe – and this is my personal comment – that person is the general manager.
“And I believe it was said that ‘If you want to go higher, if you want to go State or Federal, stick with me and we will get you there’.
“That’s my personal view, but I think that’s exactly what’s going on.
“In the meantime, we have other councillors called ‘the bloc’ who got in there on numbers without actual heart and soul and they’re scared.
“They don’t know what to do, they haven’t got their own minds, so its 7-2, 7-2 every single time. Almost.”
Mr Day said council had lodged an official complaint against him following a recent interview with Minister for Planning Scully.
As reported by The Southern Wire, Mr Scully said during the interview that Wingecarribee residents should be asking questions of the council leadership in relation to lengthy DA processing times.
Mr Day said the complaint “strangely enough” was lodged two days before council’s May meeting and effectively silenced him for two weeks until it was cleared by lawyers.
“For two weeks I haven’t been able to do what I like to do and that’s to talk about this area as far as council is concerned,” he said.
“For one moment I thought I was living in China – or maybe Russia. But you’ve got to stick to your guns and that’s what I’d like to implore you to do today.
“You’ve got to stick to your guns and you’ve got to work shoulder to shoulder to get it (council) back to where it was before,” Mr Day said.
“And that’s not an easy thing to do because there’s so much ‘smoke and mirrors’ going on.
“The fact of the matter is that only tonight you have a couple of councillors saying that (Facebook page) Highlands Opinion can’t have an opinion.
“Are we in Russia now?
“What are we doing and where are we heading?
“It is something I haven’t seen in all my years of broadcasting.”
Mr Day questioned council’s hesitance when it came to establishing an independent finance committee and said there had been a “degree of arrogance” on the issue.
He said Shoalhaven City Council had been looking at a 43 per cent rate increase but had turned things around thanks to a finance committee “with independent people telling them what they need to do”.
He said Shoalhaven mayor Patricia White and general manager Andrew Constance had offered to come to the Wingecarribee “to explain how it was done” but the offer was declined.
“That’s the trouble with this council,” he said.
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