It has been too long a time since you have graced us with a visit to Dubbo (your last visit was in 1992) here in Western New South Wales.

Residents still remember the excitement and celebration of your visit. It was a great occasion and remains, along with your first visit in 1954, a historical landmark for Dubbo.

Dubbo is now a community of circa 42,000 people and is the “powerhouse” for a region covering most of Western NSW.

The Daily Liberal is the main news medium serving the community and, as such, often makes the clarion call on issues affecting the interests of residents.

It does not pretend to represent all of the people, all of the time but tries to act in the best interests of the majority.

For this reason, this letter is designed to seek any help Your Majesty could render on the issue of  council mergers forced on our community and many others in local government areas in NSW by the state government.

Six residents of the small town of Gundagai have already written to you asking for similar help.

Thriving Dubbo was forcibly merged with its neighbor, the struggling Wellington Shire (home to about 9000 residents) in mid-2016.

Dubbo residents fear they will have to foot the bill for Wellington from their ratepayer funds for a long time. Fixing Wellington, if it needs fixing at all, should be the financial responsibility of the state government.

Wellington (named for the famous Duke) fears it will lose its unique character and community identity and disappear in this Dubbo annexation. 

The government argued financial and efficiency imperatives in this and other unpopular mergers.

The “common people” were not given the chance to vote on the issue. The government “merger tank” just rolled over all community disquiet here and elsewhere.

The amalgamations were pushed through with a mix of false promises, unsubstantiated claims and the government’s considerable power. It withheld key information from affected communities, used bureaucratic “stacked decks” to justify its acts and dismissed out of hand any opposition.

In our area, vocal opponents of the merger were publicly demeaned and ignored. It was a matter of the government dictating outcomes. Communities tried unsuccessfully to fight the mergers. No offence intended, but imagine two corgis trying to bring down an elephant.

Residents are unlikely to follow the example of their Gundagai counterparts and appeal to your good grace. They have all but given up hope. This letter expresses some of their views.

The issue is not about “commoners” rejecting change for no reason. It is about the stripping away of democratic rights at a grass roots level. Residents were not allowed to decide what they wanted for their council – the tier of government closest to and interwoven in their daily lives.

The government will say there will be elections for the merged councils in the future, but they are not “the community’s councils”, they are “theirs”.

Country regions in NSW are far from the centres of federal or state government power and often receive only the breadcrumbs from the banquet table of government funding for education, health, and other vital services. We are seated farthest from the high table.

But, our communities are tough and hardy and fight their way through adversity, as Your Majesty may remember from your meetings with some of them during your visits.

They treasure their democracy, inherited originally from the United Kingdom.

Monarchs from your island nation have traditions dating back to the era of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms where the King or Queen would be the final court of appeal for the people.

Some Monarchs would act to protect their subjects from having their rights and property stripped away by greedy, grasping dukes, barons and others. In later times, Monarchs might offer the same protection from unconscionable acts by powerful commercial and political interests.

The protocols of modern times may place strictures on Your Majesty, but you have held the UK and the Commonwealth together throughout your reign. You would know that sometimes a nod, a wink, a note or a look can affect the course of events.

Your Majesty’s grandfather King George V is remembered for upholding a “fair go” (Australian for fair play) and impartiality at a national political level, according to historyextra, which points out that his son and your father, King George VI, was also committed to such high principles and clearly you have continued that philosophy.

There is always the Royal Prerogative defined by Bagehot as “the right to be consulted, the right to encourage, the right to warn”.

Perhaps Your Majesty could use the Prerogative to “encourage” the NSW government  to stop denying rights to communities here and “warn” it of the damage such actions pose to democracy. The government is, after all, comprised of people who by extension and convention are your ministers.

We understand you may not be able to help.

But, if you could help overturn the merger and restore grassroots democratic rights to residents, we are sure they would reaffirm their regard for Your Majesty, matching the respect, admiration and affection given by Englishmen to your Tudor namesake.

You would be forever: OUR Good Queen Bess.