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Returning to the first meeting of Hawkesbury City Council this year on Tuesday 3 February 2026 gives pause for reflection. Some things have changed. Others, reassuringly or otherwise, remain exactly the same.
One noticeable change was the Press Desk itself. Now renamed by a determined Council the Administrative Officer Desk, it sat vacant. We looked longingly at our old home, while we struggled to arrange laptops and Council Business papers on our left-handed school chairs labelled reserved for media, before the meeting began.
The press desk stands solid and solitary, stubbornly resisting attempts to erase its history and purpose to be a watch dog over those in power. Somehow though our school chairs seem more appropriate to the level of governance Hawkesbury is currently experiencing.
Also absent was the usual crowd of bustling support staff who traditionally sit behind the Directors, quietly passing notes, shuffling papers and keeping the machinery moving.
Whether they were still on holidays or simply no longer required was unclear. What was clear as the meeting progressed was that the Directors appeared perfectly capable of managing without them.
This unexpected display of self-sufficiency could be usefully included in a submission to IPART as evidence of why Hawkesbury Council does not require another rate rise. After all, the last 30 per cent increase coincided with a reported 60 per cent growth in staff numbers and a noticeable decline in service delivery. If Directors can function without layers of support, there appears to be an easy productivity gain hiding in plain sight.
Another unresolved issue is the vacant Director of City Planning role. At present, it remains unknown whether Council will appoint using cronyism or use merit-based recruitment. That is, appointing someone with the appropriate qualifications and experience, rather than someone who they simply like.
Among optimists hoping for progress on the decade-long delay in finalising a Local Environmental Plan, rumours persist that the Minister for Local Government may intervene and appoint a Planning Administrator to restore due process and momentum to this branch of Council.
Then there were the new meeting procedures.
Standing to speak. Bowing on entry. Protocols more commonly associated with parliaments and courtrooms were rolled out with mixed enthusiasm. Several councillors appeared to sprint into the chamber ahead of the Mayor, seemingly keen to avoid the expected bow once he had taken the chair.
Questions quickly followed. Did councillors really have to stand when speaking? Would the Mayor actually enforce it?
Like any school principal worth their wage, the Mayor confirmed that yes, he would. The budding rebellion was quelled before it gathered momentum.
Some councillors complained that it “felt weird” an understandable reaction when doing something new after decades of habit. But the unintended benefit soon became apparent: the more talkative councillors were suddenly more concise.
Every council has its serial offenders those who believe that if five minutes are allowed, all five must be used. Hawkesbury Council has five such enthusiasts, firmly committed to the idea that more words are always better than fewer.
Standing, it turns out, is a well-established cure for verbal excess. Queen Victoria is said to have introduced standing cabinet meetings for precisely this reason, remarking that royalty required “strong legs and a cast-iron bladder” advantages not shared by her ministers.
In this instance, the new procedures appeared to improve decorum. Aside from a minor spat between familiar rivals, the combination of standing and bowing kept proceedings largely in check.
And then, inevitably, the meeting turned to poo.
A lengthy discussion unfolded on the cost of sewage tank inspections, expanded to include envirocycles and pump-outs. Motions and counter-motions flew back and forth, consuming a disproportionate amount of time. The final outcome? A decision to conduct a policy review of a 16-page document, a process the General Manager advised would take 12 months.
What made the extended discussion about sewage policy particularly striking was the broader context.
This is a Council whose failure to repair a broken sewer pipe in a timely manner has reportedly resulted in a $40 million loan, the destruction of a once-profitable business, and a $152 million asset write-down, now capped off by the effective gifting of that business to Sydney Water. Against that backdrop, Council has chosen not to urgently review a policy governing poo pump-outs, despite an obvious looming problem: who exactly will be carting the waste away, where it will be taken, and how much it will cost residents.
These are not abstract questions. They go to basic service delivery, environmental protection and public health.
Yet, in what has become common practice, the issue was deferred. The clear implication is that Hawkesbury residents may be wading around in regulatory uncertainty and possibly worse for some time to come. Allegedly, Council administration has indicated that it is no longer their problem, as they “won’t be dealing with shit anymore”.
One hopes that assurance is metaphorical.
Attempts to establish an Access and Inclusion Committee also continue to stall. During the meeting, the General Manager advised that the cost would be $9,000 per two-hour meeting.
This figure is curious, given that everyone attending such a meeting would be either a permanent Council employee or a volunteer. By simple arithmetic, that equates to $4,500 per hour per staff member to open the Council doors. It raises an obvious question: what exactly are we paying for?
If staff are not already working to ensure that all residents can access Council services, facilities and decision-making processes regardless of age, ability or circumstance then what are they working on?
Some things have changed at Hawkesbury Council. The rituals are new. The rules are stricter. The speeches are shorter.
But the fundamentals - delay, deflection and decisions postponed until they become crises remain stubbornly familiar.
