WINGECARRIBEE Shire Councillor David Fairall has responded to Joanna Gash's outspoken attack on its failure to secure more Federal Government funding through her office by labelling her speech as "unwarranted."

In her address to councillors at last week's meeting, the Gilmore MP said she had received little contact from council during her time in office making it difficult for her to secure additional grant monies for the shire.

Although she labelled her speech as constructive criticism, it was clear by the body language of many councillors that they were stung by Mrs Gash's strong words.

Councillor Fairall has now admitted that councillors were in a "state of shock" when they convened for a short coffee break following Mrs Gash's address with even Mayor Phil Yeo taken aback by the ferocity of her icy blast.

"I know a number of us viewed her speech as unwarranted," he said.

"I would never bag Jo because she's a hard working Member but a lot of us felt it would have better if she had come out and said she wanted to work with us rather than be highly critical.

"I know I was disappointed by that and a few other councillors also found her speech a bit hard.

"Jo talked about the great relationship she has with the two other councils in her electorate - Kiama and Shoalhaven - but they're not squeaky clean and we're certainly not in the red."

Mr Fairall went on to question what Federal Government funding Wingecarribee Shire Council currently knocked back and said he personally found it hard to understand how council staff would turn a blind eye to any possible source of finance.

In her speech, Mrs Gash acknowledged that cash-strapped Wingecarribee Shire Council needed money but pointed out that it was no longer good enough to simply announce that to Government or to just up your rates.

But that did little to pacify Cr Fairall.

"She forgot to mention how the Federal Government keeps putting up the tax system and things like the GST go directly to the State Government, we don't see a cent of that," he added.

"But in saying that, I wouldn't like to see shire councils given more responsibility over how they spend their money because we already have enough problems without having to worry about looking after things like police resources.

"Personally, I think the present system of three tiers of Government works very well."