The Goulburn Mulwaree Council meeting heard concerns that rural and town residents were receiving different service levels. Photo: James Coleman.
A Southern Tablelands council has put the brakes on a mobile service aiming to solve a “perceived or real gap” in service delivery to investigate it further.
During a recent meeting, Goulburn Mulwaree Council (GMC) debated whether rural residents would be best served by a mobile service.
It followed councillor Caitlin Flint’s call for councillors to commit to the launch of “satellite servicing” of the area’s villages.
A mobile service would bring a cross-section of services from the Goulburn Customer Service Centre to sites in Marulan, Bungonia, Tarago and Tallong.
“We need to connect better with all 33,000 residents. … I have stood with all of you at polling booths when we were continuously told there was a disparity between the services provided to rural residents versus in-town residents,” she said.
Cr Flint pointed to ABS data that showed about 8000 residents lived outside Goulburn’s CBD, saying this free service would be expected to benefit many.
“Something we can control moving forward, though, is our service levels, our accessibility, our availability and our willingness to attempt to bridge the gap, the perceived or real gap, between rural and city ratepayers.”
In the background to her motion, Cr Flint wrote that the proposed service was “not anticipated” to have major costs to GMC, beyond fuel and insurance expenses. Photo: John Thistleton.
Councillor Michael Prevedello called for his fellow councillors to support Cr Flint’s proposal, saying it represented a first step to resolving the issue.
“The motion is logical, and the methodology is contained within the motion – what to do and all that sort of thing is very understandable,” he said.
Under Cr Flint’s proposal, the council’s general manager would determine the frequency of the service visits.
But councillor Christopher O’Mahony questioned whether physical, in-person services would be the best use of the council’s resources.
“For better or worse, we live in an increasingly online world. I get the human connectiveness argument, absolutely, and we’ve all been through that in COVID.
“The reality is, even if we had services physically present in the villages, would they still be coming into Goulburn for this or that or something else?”
He pointed to other businesses, such as Telstra and bank branches, that were not based in those rural areas.
“I’m not sure if we’re being cautious stewards of council’s finances and our budgets if this is the best way to manage our budget … I totally get that [need for connection], but those 8000 folk are probably coming into town anyway.”
He also said current councillors were already doing “a lot more” outreach efforts than in the past.
The meeting heard that the council only owned the Marulan hall and would need to negotiate with commnity groups around the use of other halls.
Meeting documents also state the GMC no longer has the mobile library bus and mobile visitor information centre that it did previously.
Councillor Liz McKeon raised her concern that outright committing to a service was premature.
She said her past visits to the area’s villages had seen varied attendance levels, with numbers ranging from one person to about 30.
“I think it’s really crucial that we gauge the level of interest … I think we need to engage with the local residents and try to understand and get some more information about it.
“My biggest concern, looking at that motion, [is that] we don’t have those vehicles anymore, or if we use other vehicles or other staffing, is the issue with the money – is it EFTPOS, or is it cash?”
Mayor Nina Dillon suggested the proposal be reworded, meaning that GMC would “investigate” launching the service, giving council staff the ability to consider the proposal in depth.
Cr Flint agreed to the change, but said she was confident the service would prove popular with rural residents.
“The people that would likely be using these services [are] not likely to have on their to-do list, ‘Fill in this survey about whether or not they’re going to attend’.
“I actually don’t think that’s going to provide the actual data to support this. The actual data will come from actually providing the provision of service over a consistent period of time.”
While Cr Flint’s initial motion had called for a report to come back to GMC on the mobile service by March 2028, she also accepted a shorter timeline.
It means that a report will be provided to councillors by mid-year with further details about the proposed service.
