Many in the community would argue it is even more important to them than the State or Federal Government.

And rightly so, you have greater access to your local government and you see, hopefully, exactly where your ratepayer funds go.

We also have far greater access to our elected representatives.

We might work side by side with them, they could be our neighbour, we can have a discussion with them at the school gate or at the supermarket.

We might play sport with them and we probably also socialise with them.

It’s easy to be critical of local government, its staff and our local councillors, perhaps because of the access we enjoy.

But next time you feel like having a dig, stop and think for a moment, how would we receive funding for our sporting or cultural event, have our rubbish collected or our roads fixed, or even have our say on developments, without a local government.

After a tumultuous 12 months a level of certainty has returned for most local government areas.

Local councils which said no to the State Government’s proposed amalgamations will return to the status quo.

Those that accepted the umpire’s decision will have to live with the new conditions imposed upon them.

Parkes Shire Council was always deemed “fit for the future” so its staff and the residents who call the Parkes Shire home, were spared of the farce that went a long way to ending the Premiership of Mike Baird.

Local Government at its finest was on show this week when Parkes Shire Council held its March monthly meeting in the shire village of Trundle.

With a population of less than 700, Trundle residents had direct access to the shire management and to its elected representatives as the democratic process was put on show at the Trundle Services Club.

Only a handful of residents took the opportunity to attend the meeting, but the attendance is not the point, it’s the opportunity.

Council was in Trundle and if residents wanted to speak with their representatives or with staff they had the chance to do so in both a formal and informal setting.

The small attendance is a big tick for Parkes Shire and local government as a whole. If residents were unhappy they would’ve been there en masse.