Flogging the assertion that our systems have never been hacked merely encouraged hackers to show their acumen and embarrass the government. They succeeded.

Now, the government, public, and media are pursuing a "witch hunt" (many media references), after which "heads will roll" (Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and many parliamentarians).

While IBM and ABS own responsibility for providing the system, the government owns funding it and ensuring all requirements are met. The first flies in the face of "productivity dividends" which expect Rolls Royce solutions for Corolla prices.

The second results from the government maintaining insufficient internal IT systems expertise to oversee its own IT departments and contracts.

I doubt whether parliamentarian decision makers will lose their heads for insufficient funding, inappropriate monitoring, and wrongly unanticipated system needs.

Why was Census Minister Michael McCormack's office informed of the outage only at 8.10pm?  Why was he not part of "all hands on deck" actively monitoring this seminal event, versus returning to Parliament House only after at least four Denial of Service events, after several periods of system outages, after contact with ASD?

Pointing fingers and assigning blame before any investigation begins - "This has been a failure of the ABS." (PM Turnbull) and "one of the biggest shambles in government" (Opposition Leader Bill Shorten) - is a certain way for those with significant information to dive for cover.

Then, we'll never know.

SO, Gundagai and Cootamundra councils have merged, against the wishes of the community.

All those public meetings that were held protesting against the mergers were a complete waste of time and effort.  

Realistically, the government had already made up its mind and was just going through the motions to make out that everything was fair and above board.  

It may only be a coincidence that the person who was responsible for reporting the findings of those meetings back to the government, John Turner, held the role of deputy leader of the National Party in NSW from 1999 to 2003.

And perhaps it is a coincidence that he has been rewarded for his efforts by being appointed administrator of the Mid-Coast Council. And while on the subject of coincidences, Christine Ferguson, who has been appointed administrator of the Gundagai/Cootamundra merger, just happens to be a life member of the National Party and was elected the party’s federal president in 2012.

How lucky was Walcha to have Nationals leader Barnaby Joyce in their corner?

Because of his intervention, Walcha now stands alone.

I don’t like saying that I told you so – but I will.  In a letter in February to the Gundagai Independent, I gave this advice to mayor Abb McAlister and co: “if you think that you will get help from Katrina Hodgkinson MP, just forget about it. You’re only wasting your time”.

My advice was spot-on.  

Ms Hodgkinson is on record as saying that she worked tirelessly and gave it her all to prevent the amalgamations.

However, whatever she may claim to have done is overshadowed by the fact that she voted with her party to bring about council amalgamations in the first place.

And she voted along with her colleagues against releasing the KPMG report because it may have, in all probability, supported all councils’ efforts to stand alone.  

And it must be remembered that she had to be dragged screaming and kicking just to attend one of our meetings.

I read just recently where Member for Riverina Michael McCormack has said that he cannot intervene in the dispute because it is a state matter.  Perhaps someone should remind Michael that being a federal politician didn’t stop his leader, Barnaby Joyce.  

I believe that the main contributing factor to council’s downfall was to place too much faith in a safe-seat MP.

Katrina Hodgkinson has put the policies of a handful of her colleagues first, and put the wishes of the vast majority of her now shell-shocked constituents second.

So much for the democratic process.