Sorell Council’s slogan is ‘Community Coast Country’ and this sums us up perfectly. Only 25 minutes out of beautiful Hobart, we are the gateway to the East Coast and Tasman Peninsula. It is a fantastic municipality with a family friendly lifestyle and is the ideal place to live, work and play.
I decided to get involved with Local Government simply to make a positive difference in my community. What seems many years ago, I was a member of Apex then later on Rotary, and both these organisations taught me you can change the world by doing your bit locally, nationally and internationally. This has been a guiding influence in my role on Council. I was elected as councillor in 2009 and then mayor in 2012, just before the Dunalley bushfires.
I own and manage a rural supply business in Sorell with my son. This allows me to engage with people throughout the whole south east region and gives me the benefit of a broader understanding of the issues faced by the community and greater region.
My small business background also enables a more comprehensive view of matters of economic and strategic importance.
Collaboration brings benefits
Sorell is the hub servicing the greater south east region. We have a growing region with a big demand for infrastructure and services that, as a small council, we struggle to finance. Community expectations are much higher these days, and meeting those expectations is extremely difficult within the confines of our current finances and resourcing. The State Government has been fantastic in working with us to provide evidence based strategic funding for our infrastructure requirements.
Council has recognised the strong need to work collaboratively with its neighbours to promote the shared interests of the region. The four councils of the south east region – Sorell, Tasman, Glamorgan Spring Bay and Clarence work together under the banner of the South East Regional Development Association (SERDA). The association had been non-operational for many years but when I commenced as Chair in 2013 we set to work reinvigorating SERDA and lobbying for greater attention and funding. SERDA published a 10 year regional ‘Economic Infrastructure Development Report’ to help guide the massive growth in our region. It highlighted the importance of education and training in developing regional growth and stability.
SERDA successfully applied for funding for a Workforce Engagement and Development Officer (WEDO) to cover the region. The WEDO works with our community employers, industry groups, trade training centres and registered training authorities to support, train and encourage local employment from within our region. The South East Employment Hub has opened to help fill the gap identified by the WEDO and industry employers.
The work carried out by the WEDO and Hub has identified 350 plus new jobs needing appropriately skilled and qualified workers in the next twelve months alone. A further 3000 new positions will be created within the region during the next eight years. Programs are being put in place to meet this demand.
This is a great success story for not only our region, but also our state, as other regions now seek to roll out their own versions of the programs. Keeping it simple is the key – local people for local jobs.
Open, honest and transparent
In 2013 Council undertook a major restructure of staffing and operations. This was difficult, but sensible and very much required, and has proved to be the right decision. It has put us on a very solid footing to face our issues head on within our financial restraints.
Sorell Council now operates as an extremely open, honest and transparent organisation, and is one of the most professional councils in the state. Our staff are not only professional and highly skilled, but they also take immense pride in their roles and are very committed to working on behalf of the community to create positive outcomes.
Our ability to effectively lobby and work with the state Government to secure funding for major infrastructure projects and services has been hugely successful. In the last few years we have seen commitment to five significant road infrastructure projects, upgrade of our major sporting precinct, redevelopment of our local K-12 school, the construction and development of an Emergency Services Hub, as well as a new and upgraded public transport service.
Setting us up for the future
Without a doubt the best part about being Mayor is the privilege of seeing every part of this amazing community and being involved in so many things the general public don’t get to see. I get to meet the most wonderful people and see the multitudes of good work they do, and I get to attend all the great activities and events that take place.
There is no ‘worst’ part, however, the hardest thing to get your head around is the limited resources and funds available to deal with the needs of our community.
There are many, many infrastructure and community projects I want to see through to completion as I know they will have such a positive impact on our community. Our population continues to grow at rates that well exceed state averages and many of these projects will set our community up in terms of transport, housing, education and the way we live for the next generation.
