There has been a local council of one sort or another based in Bombala since 1891.  Until May 12, 2016, that is. Council mergers were supposed to be voluntary, but have become compulsory.  There were sustainability criteria, but it appears that when a council such as Bombala’s met those, the Baird government changed the criteria.  How else to explain KPMG’s two very different reports on the merits of merger, the very guarded one to the the council and the later, more upbeat one to the government? The outcome of the merger is a Snowy Monaro regional council area of more than 15,000 square km – about the same size as East Timor, larger than some 35 other countries, six times the size of the ACT – with an estimated permanent population of 21,000.  Talk about taking the local out of local government.  The outcome is bad enough.  But to me it is the process – unfair, unjust, an abuse of power – that, more than anything, calls for people to take a stand. There may be a legal challenge to the merger – good luck with that.  I’m more concerned with how the aggrieved individual, who usually feels powerless in situations like this, can have an impact. State MP John Barilaro makes the point that he will pay at the ballot box if people are unhappy.  He can say that, secure in the knowledge that he will not face the voters until 2019. But there is another ballot coming up – the federal election.  Because this is Eden-Monaro, every vote counts.  This turns the election on July 2 into a potential weapon of protest that is not only timely but very powerful, for those individual voters in Bombala minded to use it that way.