By Lucy Waldron
On Tuesday 20 February, the community was given a chance to speak and listen to the candidates who have nominated for the 2024 local elections with the Warwick Chamber of Commerce Meet Your Councillors Speed Dating event.
The community was able to send questions in for the chamber president Garry Lawrence to ask both the mayoral and council candidates.
Here are some of the notable questions and answers from the mayoral candidates.
Q: What initiatives/ideas (and or new income-related activities) would you recommend to councillors and the CEO to save council operational costs and in the annual budget to work towards stabilising rate, fee and charge increases?
Answer by Vic Pennisi: “The funding model of local government is flawed, it relies on input costs going up at a far greater rate than what our income is and unless we commercialise council in some way, in the short term, we will continue to put upward pressure on rates therefore we must find other income to do the reverse of that and put downward pressure on rates.”
The ideas made by Pennisi to explore stabilising rates were; selling offsets, adding a commercial arm to council outside of the red tape and utilising land with a billboard to bring in money.
Q: What immediate measures will you take to address the housing crisis we currently have?
Answer by Melissa Hamilton: “The housing crisis is a very big issue across the area whether you are an employer trying to bring people into the area, someone looking for a rental home, or someone looking to buy. I think there is a lot that local government can do in relation to housing.”
Hamilton explains what measures she believes will work to address the housing crisis; rebates to encourage different housing types, looking at what we have and the gaps in the market, planning measures in terms of repurposing existing stock, fast-tracking planning developments and assisting with projects. Registering council as a federal housing provider so that they can have access to the new Housing Australia Future Fund and start getting funding at a federal level as well as at a state level to do some social housing.
Q: Why are we restricting the use of Storm King Dam facilities with our local cadet units, when we should be encouraging such youth programs?
Answer by Lindsay Goodwin: “We must continue to look after our youth in the region, there’s a lot of them and you see them running around town here so we need to put something in place where they can meet and do activities.”
Goodwin highlights the importance of activities for youth; Storm King Dam has kayaks, they can swim and fish and there are weekend activities. Building tenpin bowling alleys is a possibility, something where older people can give guidance which will help the community going into the future.
The councillor candidates also lined up on stage and answered the community’s hard-hitting questions.
Q: What initiatives/ideas (and or new income related activities) would you recommend to councillors and the CEO to save council operational costs and in the annual budget to work towards stabilising rate, fee and charges increases.
Answer by Brett Tunbridge: “As a councillor I would be very much prepared to look at any proposals to reduce costs within the operating budget of the council”
Tunbridge said many current projects are vital like the sewage treatment plant upgrades and he said the job is to make decisions in the intent of the people.
Q: How are you going to sort our water/sewerage?
Answer by Ross Bartley: Council has taken a proactive approach in supplying a ton of infrastructure to certain areas to facilitate development. I think that’s a positive step. You have to look at where the mass population are going and plan futuristically, that is where you take your infrastructure”
Q: Currently council has no single employee with the word tourism in their job title. Please tell us the role you think council plays in tourism in our region.
Answer by Kelvin Johnston: While Kelvin did not as such answer the question he spoke passionately about his role in the Granite Belt Music Council – Making sure to separate it from the Southern Downs Regional Council – and how it brings tourism to the region and how he plans to implement Cultural Community Wellbeing Precincts.
Answer by Stephen Tancred: “We haven’t got one person with tourism in their name but we have three or four people that work in the promotion of tourism.”
Tancred continued to speak about how the council funds events such as Celtic Fest, Jumpers and Jazz as well as mentoring smaller organisations to help them grow.
Q: How will you set the standard for respectful and equitable relationships and communications in the council chamber, in the SDRC workplace and across our community?
Answer by Marika McNichol: “I think it’s very important that we have respect to the council. Everyone has different opinions and ideas but it is so important that you respect their ideas. When I was in council, the previous council with Tracy Dobie, we had a very respectful council, there was no arguing, there were no raised voices, it was just respected and we all got on really well together and it was a great environment, it was peaceful, it was kind. It was like being at home, it was just a wonderful environment, and I think that it would be great if we git back to that. We didn’t need cameras because we just did the right thing. And having the cameras there just shows other people’s personalities and how they really are so I say, let’s just have peace, quiet understanding and respect each other.”
Q: Work in partnership at all levels of government, frontline and specialist community services to collectively work towards preventing violence in the community and keeping families safe?
Answer by Sheryl Windle: “Council can only do so much to try and overcome some of these problems and we can’t do it on our own. We have to work with the QLD police services and follow their lead to see what they have in place and maybe we can support that in some way, whether its installing more cameras around the region to try and capture some of this but it is a very difficult one and it think we all as a community have to work together to try and make us all safe.”
Answer by Noel Grosskopf: “I think there is a real need to have some events that do promote some healthy recreation. Certainly, one way to address some of the crime, particularly youth crime is to get some activities going that are actually going to the young fellas something to do.”
Grosskof quoted one of his earlier conversations with a community member saying there is nothing to do here on a Friday night that doesn’t involve alcohol.
Answer by Joel Richters: “Just last week I was fortunate, with some of the other councillors, to attend a DV education session at the RSL and from that many things were evident. Cr Gilori made a really good point that we lack the support of men’s DV Support groups around town. I think that’s something we could possibly champion in the future and I think council can support those initiatives and linking to the previous question, I think as a council we can do something about role modelling the right behaviours around the council. That says to our community that we don’t accept DV at all and we need to call it out where it is, and I’m hoping that as a councillor for the next term, that’s how it goes, that I hope I can role model the right behaviours that say to our communities that that’s not acceptable.”
Q: How will you commit to Council taking leadership on this issue across the region, including the development of a trauma-informed Strategic Plan that is transparent, deliverable, measurable, flexible and timely?
Answer by Sarah Deane: “I think the best thing to start with is contact the local groups that are already amongst domestic violence in the community and really try to work with them as well and see how we can get funding and things like that. Definitely working with the local communities that already exist but definitely supporting and helping those that are most vulnerable.”
Q: How would you help the organisations that are present in the region?
Answer by Carla Pidgeon: “I believe that we have myriad community organisations in this region already with lots of volunteers doing lots of wonderful things for all age people, youth right through to the elderly.”
Pidgeon spoke about reducing the costs these organisations are faced with and the need to support them with facilities to encourage more events so people have other things to do than go to the pub.
Q: You are not on council at present so why should you get on council.
Answer by David Thompson: “I have been a paramedic in town for 25 years so I have seen quite a lot of domestic violence issues that go on, I believe that we need more interaction in the community to bring people together more, festivals, tourism, bend it all together and bring people together into our region.”
Q: You are a councillor, what would you like to do in your term if you are reelected?
Answer by Andrew Gale: “I will continue to look at divisional representation, I am looking for more work, I like to be accountable, and I like to have a crew to look after. I think that’s one way that the community could be better value for money out of the investment they put into us.”
Q: What are you going to do if you get elected into the Southern Downs Regional Council?
Answer by Cameron Gow: “I believe in the power of community groups to make a difference. In discussions about domestic violence with a community member, I highlighted the success of bringing various groups together, as we did with our environmental sustainability strategy during my time in council. By collaborating with government and non-government agencies, we secured funding and expertise to adopt the strategy. This approach, which led to the dedication of a council officer to its implementation, shows the effectiveness of collective efforts. I propose a similar strategy for community health and safety issues, leveraging the success of past initiatives. By uniting diverse groups, including dedicated volunteers, we can address various community concerns more effectively. I’m committed to championing this approach if re-elected to council.”
Nick Suduk, Morweena Harslett, Cynthia McDonald (for half the evening) and Russell Wantling were an apology for the night.
