This comes at no cost to the ratepayer and little trouble for the council.

First, the council to go it alone involving the state and federal governments is asking for trouble (too many cooks, etcetera).

My suggestion is, when all council rates have been paid (on homes, businesses and vacant land) the rates department to take one dollar off each payment and put it into a local investment company (we have a couple of good ones in Ballarat which pay good interest on long-term investment).

No highly-paid managers involved, no special staff, and no CEO.

The rates office to write out a cheque and pay it into a named account which cannot be used for any purpose other than PM statues.

I don't know how many rateable properties we have in Ballarat but I'm sure a suitable balance would quickly grow.

There may even be sufficient left over to put up a statue of me.

I'm not very tall.