This is my 1000th blog post and it focuses on a topic I've never mentioned before. I'm standing for election as a councillor for the new Armidale Regional Council. This new local government authority emerged a couple of years ago as the result of the merger of the Armidale - Dumaresq and Guyra councils. It is still small by the standards of many countries, with a total population of about 30,000 people. Eleven positions are up for grabs and 48 candidates have put their names forward.
I'm standing with 6 other candidates on an 'Independent' ticket and the three other groupings are Country Labor (a branch of the Australian Labor Party), the Greens, and the New England Futures Group. The last named comprises four young tech-oriented business people led by my friend David Levingstone who works in IT. The Independents I'm associated with are mostly involved in private business. We're led by a former Councillor, Margaret O'Connor, whose background is in farming and law, but we've also got an engineer, an agricultural machinery dealer, a hairdresser, and interestingly an Aboriginal elder, Mavis Ahoy. We're also multicultural and have a strong gender balance. I'm third on our ticket, which me more or less makes me unelectable, but I don't mind that. By the way the four groups mentioned above are considerably out-numbered by the free-standing independents.
Yesterday evening Dot and I attended a 'meet the candidates' forum in the auditorium of the local Bowling Club. Each free-standing (i.e. ungrouped) candidate spoke for 3 minutes and then fielded questions for the next few minutes. In the case of the four formal groups, only the leader spoke and fielded questions, so I was there to appraise the competition. Alas, most of the candidates either (a) talked about their past achievements and provided no vision for the future; or (b) promised to do this that or the other rhetorically, but failed to explain the strategies / approaches involved. Margaret, to her credit tried to explain both her intentions and the role of Council in reaching those goals. Mind you, I'll take some credit for this as we've discussed at length such issues over several years. Moreover, as an advisor to the 'House of Representatives Select Committee on Regional Development and Decentralisation', I know far better than most in this country about the task of local development and how to achieve it.
I managed some pictures of the gathering on my mobile phone:
Here's Margaret in the second row awaiting her turn to speak.
Quite a large audience participating.
Spot Dot?
Margaret making her pitch.
And here I'm standing with Margaret and Amber Fernandez. The latter went to Duval High School at about the time Emily and Rebecca were there.
Wish me luck on 9th September, Election Day. Mind you, if I get elected I could miss a few council meetings when I'm travelling widely in Australia and Overseas in the next 12 months. Five trips are already planned, only one of which is here in Australia! Psst! Keep this quiet for the next 10 days!
AS
I'm standing with 6 other candidates on an 'Independent' ticket and the three other groupings are Country Labor (a branch of the Australian Labor Party), the Greens, and the New England Futures Group. The last named comprises four young tech-oriented business people led by my friend David Levingstone who works in IT. The Independents I'm associated with are mostly involved in private business. We're led by a former Councillor, Margaret O'Connor, whose background is in farming and law, but we've also got an engineer, an agricultural machinery dealer, a hairdresser, and interestingly an Aboriginal elder, Mavis Ahoy. We're also multicultural and have a strong gender balance. I'm third on our ticket, which me more or less makes me unelectable, but I don't mind that. By the way the four groups mentioned above are considerably out-numbered by the free-standing independents.
Yesterday evening Dot and I attended a 'meet the candidates' forum in the auditorium of the local Bowling Club. Each free-standing (i.e. ungrouped) candidate spoke for 3 minutes and then fielded questions for the next few minutes. In the case of the four formal groups, only the leader spoke and fielded questions, so I was there to appraise the competition. Alas, most of the candidates either (a) talked about their past achievements and provided no vision for the future; or (b) promised to do this that or the other rhetorically, but failed to explain the strategies / approaches involved. Margaret, to her credit tried to explain both her intentions and the role of Council in reaching those goals. Mind you, I'll take some credit for this as we've discussed at length such issues over several years. Moreover, as an advisor to the 'House of Representatives Select Committee on Regional Development and Decentralisation', I know far better than most in this country about the task of local development and how to achieve it.
I managed some pictures of the gathering on my mobile phone:
Here's Margaret in the second row awaiting her turn to speak.
Quite a large audience participating.
Spot Dot?
Margaret making her pitch.
Wish me luck on 9th September, Election Day. Mind you, if I get elected I could miss a few council meetings when I'm travelling widely in Australia and Overseas in the next 12 months. Five trips are already planned, only one of which is here in Australia! Psst! Keep this quiet for the next 10 days!
AS
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