It’s been 25 years since actress Deborah Kenney ushered in a three-word slogan to the Australian cultural vernacular that clearly demonstrates the feeling of discontent and unhappiness.

“Not Happy Jan” is now part of our everyday language to convey a sometimes jovial, but sometimes serious level of dissatisfaction.

Fast-forward to 2025, and specifically the NSW Budget for 2025-26 and the catchphrase might be more appropriately be reworded to: Not Happy Dan.

The Dan in this context refers to the Hon. Daniel Mookhey MLC, the Treasurer of NSW who just handed down his third budget for the state. The Budget has been variously described as ‘interesting’, ‘safe’, ‘canny’ and a ‘missed opportunity’.

Here at The Bugle, we think “Not Happy Dan” is probably the best way to summarise our thoughts. Whilst the state’s finances are in precarious territory – a situation that we are all too familiar with from Kiama Council – we were not expecting golden cheques and significant announcements.

However, a perusal of the Budget Papers will reveal … not much, at least for us and our community. This qualifies for the serious level of dissatisfaction description.

There’s an entire Budget Paper called “Our plan for Regional New South Wales” which features the Illawarra-Shoalhaven. We cannot keep up with thought bubbles (brain farts?) that the boffins and bureaucrats in Sydney come up with. This time last year we were part of the “Six Cities” of the Sydney region. Now it looks like our region has been relegated to “Regional NSW”.

Semantics, really, because the bigger issue is that the only mention of “Kiama” in the Regional Budget Paper is a reference to Kiama Council being part of the Illawarra-Shoalhaven region.

That’s probably not such a bad idea and inclusion, because if you looked through the detail of where the Treasurer is spending the state’s money in our region – you might not know we exist.

Of the approximate $2.5 billion spending package that is outlined for the Illawarra-Shoalhaven region, it appears that not a single dollar has been specifically earmarked for our local government area and our local community.

Not Happy, Dan.

Here at The Bugle, we realise that Kiama might not be the fastest growing community. And we may not be in need for significant investments in emergency services (we are clear beneficiaries of the new Shellharbour and Shoalhaven Hospital projects) – but we do have our own set of challenges.

We are a growing community and with an extra 7000 people that are going to call our community home over the next 15 years – we would have thought that there’d be some investment into infrastructure, services and improvements to set us up for growth.

The situation regarding the Bombo Wastewater Treatment Plant is well known. As is the capacity (or lack thereof) of some of our roads.

Our Council cannot be expected to shoulder the burden by themselves. Equally, it would be unwise to rely on developers to deliver bullet-proof infrastructure upgrades to completely cater for population growth – that after all, is what Government is for.

We can laud and support some of the budget initiatives that will provide better outcomes for new parents and vulnerable children. But when it comes to getting our fair share from this year’s State Budget, The Bugle’s View is we are not happy, Dan.