Vibrant city
Wagga Wagga is a vibrant progressive city – the largest in inland New South Wales.
It boasts a population of 64,000. The Council has assets of $1.5b, 2300 kilometres of roads, and employs around 500 employees.
I don’t have one favourite city aspect or attraction, but I rate highly our Riverside Precinct, which is enjoyed by many hundreds of people each week, along with our Miniature Railway, which winds around a picturesque track in the Botanic Gardens.
Media man
I was first elected to the Wagga Wagga City Council in 2012 and in September 2016 was elected unopposed as Mayor, replacing Councillor Rod Kendall who served in the role for four years.
I have a media background starting out as a cadet journalist in my home town of Cootamundra in 1970.
After being graded I worked in Armidale NSW (where I met my wife, Jenny) before moving to Wagga Wagga in 1977 working in radio, television and newspapers.
Two years later I started my own newspaper and spent 25 years as the Managing Editor.
During that time the paper won many NSW Country Press Awards, organised campaigns to assist people in third world countries, started the city’s outstanding business awards, and organised and ran campaigns to assist the less fortunate in Wagga Wagga.
In 2005 I sold my interests in the newspaper and started my own Marketing and Public Relations business.
I enjoy sport (golf, tennis and swimming), have been a Rotarian for 23 years, I am a member of the Wagga City Rugby Male Choir (a Welsh-based choir), I am a presenter on community radio and have joined a beginners band after recently taking up the saxophone.
Financial strain
Like most, if not all local government bodies in NSW, our biggest challenge concerns our finances.
State Government cost shifting costs Wagga Wagga City Council $3.4m each year, while the decision to freeze the Federal Government’s Financial Assistance Grants and an added allocation this year, has impacted Wagga Wagga’s budget by $2.4m over the past three years.
Despite these difficulties with our finances and our ability to continue to provide quality services to the city, we have been able to secure substantial Federal and State Government funding for infrastructure projects including our Business Park.
This decision is already paying dividends with considerable interest being shown from industry looking at moving, or setting up businesses, in the Park.
The Council has also been working closely with a large international company to establish a rail intermodal hub within the Business Park, which will take advantage of the decision to include Wagga Wagga on the inland rail route.
Again this has generated interest from existing industries wishing to expand.
Sustainable success
In my first term on Council I lobbied hard to successfully set up a Sustainable Energy Reserve to reduce the Council’s energy costs. Within the next two years the fund will contain $600,000, which will be used to install more solar energy cells on various Council own buildings.
Hopefully this fund will grow over the next 10 years to further reduce our energy costs.
The best part of being a Councillor is having an input into the future development of the city.
During the last four years Councillors approved a number of developments, which will bear fruit over the next four years.
We now need to look at what we want the city to look like over the next 25 to 30 years. This includes our road networks, additional car parking places and our sport, recreational and leisure activities.
Wagga Wagga has a bright future and I am privileged to be leading this city over the next two years to ensure solid foundation stones are in place to ensure sustainable growth and development continues.
