I have been vocal in my criticism of the motion to dissolve the Sister City relationship with Kunming, as have others.

A vast majority of those against the decision have blamed the mover of the motion, Councillor Paul Funnell and those who voted for it, but I do not.

I hold the council as a whole responsible for the decision, which is why I did not name any individual councillor in my initial statement.

I believe this was the culmination of a larger issue, which has been growing in influence for some time.

It happened well before this term of council, when we saw members elected on political party tickets to council, thus councillors bringing their political party's agenda along with them.

Since I returned to Wagga more than a decade ago, I've seen Greens' councillors elected during previous terms and now two Labor councillors sitting in the chamber.

I understand the rationale of why these political parties do this - it builds grassroots support and they often use local government as a 'training ground' for members to gain political experience.

In Sydney councils, party politics dominates the local government landscape. Preselections and elections, both for Liberal and Labor members, are as closely fought as state and federal ones.

There is no doubt, Cr Dan Hayes and Cr Vanessa Keenan have bought along with them the Labor Party policy platform, which they attempt to push through our council whenever they see an opportunity.

One only needs to go back through the Wagga Council News publications and read the councillor columns from these members to see how often they focus their attention on issues outside of their sphere of influence - on issues in the state and federal Parliament's jurisdictions.

This is an obvious indicator of their focus while serving on council.

I've lost count of the number of 'motions' which I see appear in the NSW Parliament from Labor members, only to see similar motions appear at the next council meeting moved by Cr Hayes or Cr Keenan.

These motions, which originate out of Sussex Street in Sydney, often have nothing of value for our region, other than the ability for the Opposition to say it was also debated in 'Council X and Council Y' at a later time.

This obvious political and partisan slant to their contributions within council have forced other councillors of a different ideology to adopt similar tactics to combat this strategy.

A quick browse of the published agendas from this term of council demonstrates the escalation of this 'Left and Right' combativeness using the local government system.

For the ratepayers and businesses of Wagga this can only mean one thing - council is more focused on themselves than the task of serving the community.

The motion of last Tuesday night was yet another escalation of this war between councillors, who should be focused on working together, serving the community.

I am sure many of you are saying to yourselves "But, you're a member of a political party and a member of Parliament, so this is hypocritical of you to comment".

To this I would say the formation of local government and the formation of our other parliaments are completely different. Our parliaments operate on the Westminster system of government and opposition, which naturally lends itself to party politics.

Local government is the closest level to the people, and while the election methods sometimes differ between local government areas (wards, directly elected mayor etc), the intent was always to have local representatives elected.

I do not believe we are well served by councillors bringing party politics to the table.

I am a member of The Nationals and philosophically we do not run tickets on local government. If members of our party wish to nominate for council, they do so without the party name and political machine behind them.

I support this position, however it is obvious that with the rise of political parties within local government, this decision may not be tenable much longer. I believe this would be a sad day for the spirit of local government.

It is all too easy to blame Cr Funnell and others for the sister city motion last Tuesday, but I believe it is symptomatic of a bigger issue within the City of Wagga Wagga Council - that of party politics invading our local governments.

Wagga is a great city, with a bright future. Now, more than ever, we need our council focused on the things they can do, not party politics.

When the council elections happen in 2021, please consider if we are well served by electing more politically-aligned members, or are we better off with local champions who are focused on the issues and constituents they should be - you.

Wes Fang is a member of the NSW Legislative Council for The Nationals and was the former head of the Wagga Wagga Ratepayers' Community.