NSW Minister for Local Government Ron Hoenig has taken aim at “egregious spending” by councils, singling out Kiama in the process for “egregious expenses.”

While addressing parliament on 30 May, Minister Hoenig said there had been “universal complaints” from local governments about having to pay an emergency services levy, which councils and insurance companies pay to support services like police and firefighters. 

Minister Honeig told parliament that his view was that councils needed to get their own expenses in order to achieve financial stability, not just increase rates.

“They are very good at putting their hand out and taking a 3½ per cent increase from the Local Government Remuneration Tribunal, and spending their time making submissions to upgrade their categories to earn more fees when we are putting through legislation to freeze our own salaries and that of senior public servants,” said Minister Hoenig. “They are quite happy to embark upon some egregious expenses.”

He went on to use Kiama as one of those egregious examples: “Kiama Council put $105 million into an aged-care facility, nearly sinking the council’s financial processes.”

He also called out Ryde Council for spending $10,000 for a weekend at the Hyatt Regency, Tamworth for spending $13,000 on overseas travel to the US and Liverpool for spending $350,000 renaming itself to 'City of Liverpool'.

Since his address to parliament, Minister Hoenig has met with Kiama Mayor Neill Reilly, State Member for Kiama Gareth Ward MP and Kiama Council CEO Jane Stroud at Parliament House to discuss the government’s finances.

Mayor Reilly said Minister Hoenig’s remarks weren't a surprise or shock given that Kiama Council had disclosed its financial issues with the previous NSW government in December 2021. He pointed out that Minister Hoenig’s gripe was with local councils not wanting to pay an emergency services levy, which was unrelated to Kiama Council's issues.

“Most importantly we aren’t asking for the NSW Government to bail us out,” said Mayor Reilly. He added that he thanked the minister for his “frank appraisal” of the previous council’s decision-making regarding its aged care investments during the meeting with Minister Hoenig.

“The positive message that I took from our meeting was that the Minister and our local member, Gareth Ward, were well briefed on our situation, shared many of our views and [understood] the steps we are taking towards correcting our situation.”

During his speech in parliament, Minister Hoenig revealed some of the preliminary findings from a draft report by the Auditor-General, which found that just 43 of the 128 councils in NSW had qualified audit reports, while 94 were considered high-risk audits. The 2021-22 found errors amassing $1.3 billion between each council.