I’ve been Mayor since amalgamations in Queensland, so for the last seven years.
I commenced in the former Goondiwindi Town Council in 2000.
I became involved in local government mainly through local interests, and at that particular time the current Mayor, an associate I’d know through the stock and station agency game, encouraged me to join.
Things just went on from there.
Our local government area is a rather big area following amalgamation.
It was formed from three councils put into one.
It has a long skinny border area, 360 odd kilometers from one end to the other all joined by 536 kilometers of a river border.
It does get quite complex when you are dealing with four councils on one side and another state on the other.
We are predominantly an agricultural community.
Moree Plains Shire Council is on the other side and they are probably regarded as one of the richest agricultural areas in Australia.
We’re in the top seven, so agriculture is by far our major industry, but having said that, drive–through tourism is also a significant part.
We’re at the junction of five highways so we have people traveling south to north and north to south coming through.
A lot of people go through and it’s a matter of capturing some of those people to stay in the area.
Cross-border issues
For our particular council cross border issues would be by far the biggest challenge because we’ve got a river right on the edge of our town and that makes it very, very difficult.
But the issues are being addressed and we’re trying to keep everything going.
Obviously in general day-to-day things, funding from state and federal governments, and cost shifting by state and federal governments back to local government are probably our biggest concerns.
I wouldn’t say we are working on any innovative projects as such, what we are trying to do is consolidate what we have got and supply it better using what we’ve got rather than trying to expand.
Livability for the area is probably our main aim, plus affordable rates and just good general services.
Just yesterday we approved probably the biggest development the Goondiwindi Regional Council has ever done, a 65-lot retirement village.
It is great to see that people are seeing the potential of us.
Other things that have been successful is our health attraction process where we went into a health study with Deloitts and the two state governments a couple of years ago.
Now for instance we have 12 doctors, seven dentists and a lot of allied health and assisting health people moving into town and we’ve become what you would class a mini supply health hub for Queensland and New South Wales.
Lobbying and quality of life.
There have been a lot of highs and the odd low too.
I think probably the recognition by a lot of the state governments has been a success.
In the last year we had two non-accredited schools funded in our area, and we’ve got a very exciting development of our own cinema upgrade that received support from federal and state governments over the years.
Lobbying I would say is the most difficult part of the role; chasing funding and putting forward strong business cases.
I wouldn’t say regional areas are forgotten, but because they are not as significant a cause it makes lobbying a little bit harder.
Our aim is provide better livability, services and quality of life.
If you can do that in the local government area, that’s what you aim has got to be.
This is a full time job.
I enjoy horse racing and I’m very keen on all sorts of sport.
I’m getting a bit older now and I can’t participate in too many, but I still follow the majority with keen interest.
For councillors, being able to listen, reliability and being able to get back to people with answers, whether they are favorable or non favorable, is important.
You’ve got to explain to people what’s going on and that’s something we try and enforce with all our council and staff.
The advice and assistance I receive from the staff in preparing things is invaluable.
Between the council and staff, the working relationship is first class.
We don’t always agree at first but along the line we invariably finish on the same page.
Whether it comes from staff or council, as long as you get the right result it doesn’t matter where it came from.
