A Bill has been introduced into Parliament that will stop Coober Pedy residents voting in our Council’s April 2027 periodic elections

A FRINGE GROUP CONSTRUCTED BY FIFO PUBLIC SERVANTS, LUNGES FOR CONTROL OF THE OPAL CAPITAL !

For eight long years, Coober Pedy has been stripped of its democracy and run haphazardly from the outside, by State appointed “administrators”.

Over this nearly decade-long “administration,” high￾salaried state-appointed bureaucrats have taken the reins, collected hefty pay-cheques, and handled town affairs, yet our local infrastructure continues to crumble into a state that resembles a town neglected – a ghetto.

Now, instead of balancing the books or fixing basic services, state officials and administrators are actively handing away community-built assets, like our local water supply to SA Water, while shifting the blame onto local residents.

Recent reports on council operations, including financial oversight reviews from regulators like ESCOSA, reveal that the worst of this financial mismanagement didn’t just happen in the past; it continued right under the watch of state administration.

Rather than taking responsibility for failing to fix these systems after eight years, the State Government’s latest legislation (Local Government Transition Out of Administration Amendment Bill 2026) moves to cancel our periodic local council elections entirely.

The new Minister for Local Government Rhiannon Pearce MP. apparently met with a small selection of Coober Pedy residents or workers in July, but clearly omitted consulting with the bulk of ratepayers in Coober Pedy.

Based on that brief encounter she has forwarded a submission to Parliament that paints a bleak, unfair portrait of our town. It blames and punishes the entire community for the actions of a few past councillors who the state government itself failed to properly regulate, prosecute, or oversee.

To make matters worse, a small, relatively invisible group locally, calling itself Coober Pedy Together (TG/CPT) has stepped into the gap, claiming to speak for us all. They have put forward a 10-point plan for our town’s future, signed off on a restrictive constitution, and travelled to Parliament House in Adelaide to present their vision, all while state politicians point to them as proof of “community support” for delaying true democratic elections.

The big question every genuine resident must ask: Were you ever consulted, or are the highly-paid bureaucrats and their hand-picked group still deciding our town’s fate without us?

All residents should now receive a shock to discover what has been going on behind the scenes politically in our home town, Coober Pedy, the Opal Capital of the World, in the hands of State appointed administrators.

Local Govt Minister Rhiannon Pearce MP said in Parliament, “The Bill will uncouple the Council’s maximum defaulting period from the local government periodic elections.

To support this, the Bill will amend the Council’s maximum period to be a date specified by a proclamation made by the Governor, on the Minister’s recommendation.

Ancillary to this, the Bill will stop the Council’s April 2027 periodic elections, and anything done for the purposes of the election will be taken to be void and of no effect.”

Editor: Margaret Mackay
COOBER PEDY Business Owner, and Ratepayer