1. Where do you live?
I presently reside in Corinella.
2. How long have you lived in Bass Coast?
I have resided in Corinella since 2018.
3. What is your previous community involvement (voluntary work or membership), either in Bass Coast or another area?
I am Secretary of the Corinella Residents and Ratepayers Association and a member of the Grantville Cemetery Trust. I recently completed migrating its historical and current records to a new system.
I also volunteer technology support through the Corinella & District Community Centre, having previously offered the Commonwealth funded Be Connected program to assist older citizens with online engagement.
I presently reside in Corinella.
2. How long have you lived in Bass Coast?
I have resided in Corinella since 2018.
3. What is your previous community involvement (voluntary work or membership), either in Bass Coast or another area?
I am Secretary of the Corinella Residents and Ratepayers Association and a member of the Grantville Cemetery Trust. I recently completed migrating its historical and current records to a new system.
I also volunteer technology support through the Corinella & District Community Centre, having previously offered the Commonwealth funded Be Connected program to assist older citizens with online engagement.
I have previously been on a two school councils and held leadership and coaching roles with several junior basketball clubs and associations although not in past ten years.
4. What experience or attributes do you bring that will help you in the role of shire councillor?
Councils are not your typical business — Bass Coast manages over $1B in assets, and this year will spend $80M delivering around 100 different services and $24M in capital works. It supports farming, tourism and service sectors spread over 865 km2.
This significant budget demands rigorous financial oversight to ensure it is spent wisely. As a retired CPA, business analyst and consultant, with senior experience in local government, I am uniquely qualified to provide this oversight.
My corporate and consulting experience includes a broad range of project and corporate functions in regional Australia, headquarters and overseas. Leading multicultural and multifunctional teams has enabled me to easily develop connections and working relationships with a broad cross-section of colleagues and clients, and hone skills at communicating complex information with stakeholders at all levels.
My experience with a large Queensland regional Council involved oversight of significant changes in service delivery, financial planning, management reporting, change management, WHS, asset management and IT.
I have a keen interest in preserving the natural environment and rehabilitation of areas once used for mining and other industrial activities. A Diploma in Sustainable Living has provided me with foundation knowledge in climate change, local sustainability and the UN Sustainability Goals.
5. Have you stood for election before in local, state or federal government?
No
6. Do you belong to a political party?
No, however even if I did, I do not support political partisanship in local government. I like to think those elected to Council will prioritise the needs of the community and be strong advocates for their wards rather than pushing party ideology or using Council as a stepping stone to a career in state politics. Decisions in Council should be evidence based after critical assessment of the facts, addressing stakeholder needs, consideration of sustainability and balancing immediate and future needs AND MADE PUBLIC.
7. Are you directing preferences?
At the time of writing I am unsure about directing preferences without knowing each of the other candidates.
A vote for incumbents is a vote for more of the same. It need not be this way. If you want change, then vote for change — vote for candidates committed to sustainability and balancing the community’s immediate and future interests, and then hold them accountable.
Ask yourself if incumbents have consistently voted in line with your thoughts on matters before Council or improved the liveability and amenity of your Ward? Have they spent your rates wisely and been strong advocates for transparency and good governance or have they been wasteful and more interested in self-promotion and advancing their political standing? Are they making excuses for prior pledges, promises and commitments not delivered and saying it will be different this time if elected?
Consider whether new candidates’ values are better aligned with your priorities and if they will have the time, energy and skills to dedicate to representing you in Council. Will well-meaning single issue activists be interested in the many services delivered by Council.
8. Name up to five local issues that you consider most important and explain how you think the council should tackle them.
Issue 1: Doing what is reasonably expected of Council without fanfare or fuss
Council must become more effective at delivering the core services that affect liveability and amenity of our communities – roads, footpaths, connected trails, disabled access, rubbish and recreation facilities. These should not be controversial. It should not be too much for ratepayers to expect:
Issue 2: Financial accountability.
Dissatisfaction is widespread among the community at their high rate bills in exchange for the level of services received. This dissatisfaction is exacerbated by examples of wasteful or indulgent spending choices misaligned with resident priorities.
More is being demanded of local governments across the country and with rate capping here to stay, there will always be pressure on Council to do more with fewer resources yet keep a lid on increases. Council should embrace a back-to-basics plan seeking to review services and determine:
Issue 3: Finding common sense outcomes and increasing transparency
Historically, a perceived lack of transparency between Council and the community has led to distrust, disillusionment and general disinterest with Council despite its best efforts at deliberative engagement as required by law.
Council should endeavour to improve transparency and communication around its decision-making and consultation processes. It would do well to emulate the Council Transparency Hub (similar to Frankston City Council) to openly display information on the Council website. Special consideration should be given to communicating and engaging with senior citizens who sometimes struggle to be informed and interact with Council.
Community panels can complement existing community engagement forums to improve the conversation between Council and the community. These would help to generate common sense contributions (does it pass the pub test?) and ensure the public voice is heard and respected in Council deliberations and subsequent decisions.
Issue 4: Improving community liveability, resilience and disaster preparedness.
Bass Coast is not immune from the consequences of climate change. Council must act to increase resilience in areas at risk from fire, flood and rising sea-levels by embracing a more sensitive and pragmatic approach to development — respecting town and hamlet boundaries are a given, as is preservation of native forests such as the Western Port Woodlands and maintaining wildlife corridors for the fauna to thrive.
Particular issues of concern requiring urgent attention are coastal erosion and protection of Western Port Bay. In the absence of costly heavy engineering solutions, we need to recognise the risks from building in active coastal zones and develop plans for rehabilitating them to former natural state. Similarly we should be doing more to restoring the mangrove beds that are so important to the health of the bay.
Issue 5: Overall Council Direction.
It is clear from the latest independent community satisfaction survey that this Council has continued the recent trend and reached its lowest point since 2016 for overall Council direction. The survey found that significantly more positive impressions among non-resident ratepayers drove higher average ratings in all areas.
Closer inspection shows the low score given by residents for overall performance across all responsibility areas (index score of 47) to be significantly low than the score given by non-residents (index score 61). This reflects anecdotal opinions that Council has been more focussed on non-core and tangential activities rather than delivering on their priorities. Only the incumbent Councillors can explain why they did not align their spending and resource allocation decisions more in line with community priorities.
This is backed up by finding that non-residents gave the most favourable scores in six of the seven other key performance metrics, whereas those that live here (the residents) gave the least favourable score in five of the same metrics.
This is a wakeup call to Councillors. The new Council should and take this election as an opportunity for a reset in direction and focus on cost-effectively delivering the essential services that residents expect.
9. Name the one thing you would most like to achieve if you are elected a Bass Coast Shire councillor.
I would like to improve respect and trust in the Council and increase community confidence that Council will act responsibly in the long term interests of the whole community rather than pursuing personal ideologies and issues.
All Bass Coast residents should expect Council to be able to cost-effectively deliver essential services and maintain infrastructure without fuss or fanfare. Further residents should expect to be consulted and engaged on all major issues before Council and given the opportunity to contribute their opinions.
In order to achieve this Councillors and leadership group must commit to improvement rather than maintaining the status quo. It is a matter of upholding principles of economic and environmental sustainability, constructive engagement, transparent decision making, being accountable and responsive.
4. What experience or attributes do you bring that will help you in the role of shire councillor?
Councils are not your typical business — Bass Coast manages over $1B in assets, and this year will spend $80M delivering around 100 different services and $24M in capital works. It supports farming, tourism and service sectors spread over 865 km2.
This significant budget demands rigorous financial oversight to ensure it is spent wisely. As a retired CPA, business analyst and consultant, with senior experience in local government, I am uniquely qualified to provide this oversight.
My corporate and consulting experience includes a broad range of project and corporate functions in regional Australia, headquarters and overseas. Leading multicultural and multifunctional teams has enabled me to easily develop connections and working relationships with a broad cross-section of colleagues and clients, and hone skills at communicating complex information with stakeholders at all levels.
My experience with a large Queensland regional Council involved oversight of significant changes in service delivery, financial planning, management reporting, change management, WHS, asset management and IT.
I have a keen interest in preserving the natural environment and rehabilitation of areas once used for mining and other industrial activities. A Diploma in Sustainable Living has provided me with foundation knowledge in climate change, local sustainability and the UN Sustainability Goals.
5. Have you stood for election before in local, state or federal government?
No
6. Do you belong to a political party?
No, however even if I did, I do not support political partisanship in local government. I like to think those elected to Council will prioritise the needs of the community and be strong advocates for their wards rather than pushing party ideology or using Council as a stepping stone to a career in state politics. Decisions in Council should be evidence based after critical assessment of the facts, addressing stakeholder needs, consideration of sustainability and balancing immediate and future needs AND MADE PUBLIC.
7. Are you directing preferences?
At the time of writing I am unsure about directing preferences without knowing each of the other candidates.
A vote for incumbents is a vote for more of the same. It need not be this way. If you want change, then vote for change — vote for candidates committed to sustainability and balancing the community’s immediate and future interests, and then hold them accountable.
Ask yourself if incumbents have consistently voted in line with your thoughts on matters before Council or improved the liveability and amenity of your Ward? Have they spent your rates wisely and been strong advocates for transparency and good governance or have they been wasteful and more interested in self-promotion and advancing their political standing? Are they making excuses for prior pledges, promises and commitments not delivered and saying it will be different this time if elected?
Consider whether new candidates’ values are better aligned with your priorities and if they will have the time, energy and skills to dedicate to representing you in Council. Will well-meaning single issue activists be interested in the many services delivered by Council.
8. Name up to five local issues that you consider most important and explain how you think the council should tackle them.
Issue 1: Doing what is reasonably expected of Council without fanfare or fuss
Council must become more effective at delivering the core services that affect liveability and amenity of our communities – roads, footpaths, connected trails, disabled access, rubbish and recreation facilities. These should not be controversial. It should not be too much for ratepayers to expect:
- Local roads to be maintained, potholes repaired promptly;
- Footpaths to encourage safe walking and connect neighbourhoods and combined cycling/hiking tracks and trails to connect communities;
- Suitably sized and located parking spaces as well as access ramps to make life a little less challenging for those living with physical disabilities;
- Flexibly-sized household recycling and waste bins and kerbside collection frequencies to suit the season and more public litter bins;
- Recreation facilities that meet the immediate and short term needs of residents and master plans to cost effectively cope with future demands in a timely manner.
Issue 2: Financial accountability.
Dissatisfaction is widespread among the community at their high rate bills in exchange for the level of services received. This dissatisfaction is exacerbated by examples of wasteful or indulgent spending choices misaligned with resident priorities.
More is being demanded of local governments across the country and with rate capping here to stay, there will always be pressure on Council to do more with fewer resources yet keep a lid on increases. Council should embrace a back-to-basics plan seeking to review services and determine:
- Which services Council currently offers
- What the cost of those services is per head of population
- What state or federal funding is available if any
- What services the wider community values in order of ranking
- What other options there are if Council exits a service
- Recommendations of any services Council should exit and where the resources saved could either be reallocated or reduce Council spending.
Issue 3: Finding common sense outcomes and increasing transparency
Historically, a perceived lack of transparency between Council and the community has led to distrust, disillusionment and general disinterest with Council despite its best efforts at deliberative engagement as required by law.
Council should endeavour to improve transparency and communication around its decision-making and consultation processes. It would do well to emulate the Council Transparency Hub (similar to Frankston City Council) to openly display information on the Council website. Special consideration should be given to communicating and engaging with senior citizens who sometimes struggle to be informed and interact with Council.
Community panels can complement existing community engagement forums to improve the conversation between Council and the community. These would help to generate common sense contributions (does it pass the pub test?) and ensure the public voice is heard and respected in Council deliberations and subsequent decisions.
Issue 4: Improving community liveability, resilience and disaster preparedness.
Bass Coast is not immune from the consequences of climate change. Council must act to increase resilience in areas at risk from fire, flood and rising sea-levels by embracing a more sensitive and pragmatic approach to development — respecting town and hamlet boundaries are a given, as is preservation of native forests such as the Western Port Woodlands and maintaining wildlife corridors for the fauna to thrive.
Particular issues of concern requiring urgent attention are coastal erosion and protection of Western Port Bay. In the absence of costly heavy engineering solutions, we need to recognise the risks from building in active coastal zones and develop plans for rehabilitating them to former natural state. Similarly we should be doing more to restoring the mangrove beds that are so important to the health of the bay.
Issue 5: Overall Council Direction.
It is clear from the latest independent community satisfaction survey that this Council has continued the recent trend and reached its lowest point since 2016 for overall Council direction. The survey found that significantly more positive impressions among non-resident ratepayers drove higher average ratings in all areas.
Closer inspection shows the low score given by residents for overall performance across all responsibility areas (index score of 47) to be significantly low than the score given by non-residents (index score 61). This reflects anecdotal opinions that Council has been more focussed on non-core and tangential activities rather than delivering on their priorities. Only the incumbent Councillors can explain why they did not align their spending and resource allocation decisions more in line with community priorities.
This is backed up by finding that non-residents gave the most favourable scores in six of the seven other key performance metrics, whereas those that live here (the residents) gave the least favourable score in five of the same metrics.
This is a wakeup call to Councillors. The new Council should and take this election as an opportunity for a reset in direction and focus on cost-effectively delivering the essential services that residents expect.
9. Name the one thing you would most like to achieve if you are elected a Bass Coast Shire councillor.
I would like to improve respect and trust in the Council and increase community confidence that Council will act responsibly in the long term interests of the whole community rather than pursuing personal ideologies and issues.
All Bass Coast residents should expect Council to be able to cost-effectively deliver essential services and maintain infrastructure without fuss or fanfare. Further residents should expect to be consulted and engaged on all major issues before Council and given the opportunity to contribute their opinions.
In order to achieve this Councillors and leadership group must commit to improvement rather than maintaining the status quo. It is a matter of upholding principles of economic and environmental sustainability, constructive engagement, transparent decision making, being accountable and responsive.