Mr Woodman attended a public hearing of the parliamentary inquiry into local government in Cobar on Monday, as the NSW government considers council amalgamations and a new model of government in the state's west.

"The main thing that we pushed was that to make a lot of councils west of the mountains sustainable, [you need] redistribution of the federal assistance grants to rural and regional councils," Mr Woodman said.

"There are six mines in the shire. We're a net contributor to the state and national economy and we need to see some of that money - the mine's taxes and royalties - coming back into the community."

Representatives of Warren, Bourke and Bogan Shire Councils, Broken Hill City Council and the Orana Regional Organisation of Councils (OROC) also attended the meeting, "to make sure the committee was fully aware about how important local government is in the far west".

"We have two doctors practices, a dental clinic, we run children's services, the Lilliane Brady aged care village, we have a motor registry inspection facility for heavy vehicles," Mr Woodman said.

"We're different from councils in other areas of the state because those community demands - no one else provides it so we have to provide it."

Cobar Shire Council is also responsible for more than 2000 kilometres of regional roads but is paid only $2500 per kilometre to maintain them. Other councils receive up to $4000 per kilometre.

"We're the lowest in the state per kilometre and we should be getting a lot more for the maintenance of the regional road network. It means you don't do two grades a year, you can only do one."

Committee chair and member of the NSW legislative assembly Paul Green said the committee wanted to hear the councils' concerns first hand.

"In places like Sydney, doctors and the like will just come and set up shop but in isolated rural areas, many of those councils have to use initiative to get those services out there, and to keep them out there," Mr Green said. "The number one [thing we've taken away] was the amount of roads those small communities have to look after with very limited finance. They are having to deal with cost shifting, infrastructure break down and also a shifting demographic."

The Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal will provide it's recommendations on council mergers to local government minister Paul Toole by October 16, with the committee set to hand down its report on October 30.