Council’s Contaminated Land Policy, developed in conjunction with REROC and the NSW Environment Protection Authority, was placed on public exhibition from July 1 to August 8. But despite having possible ramifications for the future growth of the city, not one submission about the policy was made to council.

Former deputy mayor Mary Kidson said the lack of public interest in important matters such as land use was surprising, but not new.

“People who don’t mind the status quo tend not to speak out,” Mrs Kidson said.

“They’ll speak when they’re aggrieved or complaining about something, but by and large they think ‘why should we get involved’?”

That apathy towards council often led only to negative responses to council’s proposals and the idea that council was out of touch with the community. But it wasn’t just isolated to Wagga, Mrs Kidson said; local government had become a whipping boy for communities right across the country.

“It’s fair game because people know it exists,” she said. “People feel powerless when it comes to state and federal governments, but the power of local government is much closer. I feel for councillors, when they go to events people approach them but not often about positive things.”

Wagga mayor Greg Conkey wondered what more council could do to reach out to the community.

“We engage more with ratepayers today than we ever have,” Cr Conkey said.

“There’s the Your Say website, we’ve got the public engagement ‘Charlie Truck’ out on a regular basis, there’s the public exhibition process, we use a lot of social media platforms, we write letters to people affected by various activities, put out flyers and leaflets and give individual consultations where appropriate.

“When people say we don’t engage, I’d like to find out how else they’d like us to, we’re regularly on radio, on television and in the newspaper, and we even livestream our meetings – 600 people watched the last one.”

Cr Conkey encouraged people to get involved with council, but agreed with Mrs Kidson’s view that there was a silent majority of happy residents that only spoke up when they were upset.