WOLLONGONG — The ALP-dominated Shellharbour City Council was sacked on July 9 by Paul Lynch, NSW minister for local government. The Illawarra Mercury reported Lynch as saying, "The elected council seemed so dysfunctional that an administrator could only be an improvement". Elections for a new council won't be held until 2012.
This follows the sacking of Wollongong City Council in March for "systemic corruption". Wollongong Against Corruption is demanding elections this year.
Community groups, including the Greens and Socialist Alliance, are outraged by the cancellation of the September local government elections, and the consequent undermining of democracy, in the two communities, which they say might be an attempt by the increasingly unpopular NSW government to avoid a bad poll result for the ALP.