Community first
IN recent times I’ve been reflecting on the role of mayor and councillors. While we go about our daily job of advocating for what the community wants, it struck me that it’s not our roles that are truly important. It’s the role of the individual that makes the real difference.
We all have the same fundamental desire to have control of our lives and our futures, and individuals have the most important role in this of all: to fight for what’s important to them. Our job is to simply represent that community voice.
Nowhere is this more evident than at local government. One of the great privileges of local government is our position to listen to our community members and speak on all matters without fear or favour. At local government level, we can be a genuine voice for the community.
There’s no doubt many in the community find the current political landscape frustrating. We’re constantly told what state and federal governments will be doing for us, not what we as a community want them to do. The community is being spoken to but they’re not being heard.
At a local government level, the community need to know that their voice shouldn’t be tainted by local politics or external factors. Councillors advocate on behalf of their community. This happens in its purist form locally.
This isn’t a criticism of state and federal government — we simply don’t have the same constraints and as councillors we don’t all have to be aligned with a party policy or position.
This is a distinct advantage of local government and we need to capitalise on this advantage — something we’re doing through the addition of community focus committee meetings. At these monthly meetings, we listen directly to the community and there are no boundaries on the issues you can raise.
The way the councillors campaigned pre-election last year demonstrates the flexibility we have in representing a broad range of community views. We all campaigned on diverse community issues that were strongly reflective of community demand. The group representing you now, represents the community’s wideranging sentiments and priorities as a whole and can advocate freely on all of these.
Every councillor can argue for or against any council agenda recommendations without discontent from a political party. It’s true that when a council decision is debated and voted on, then that becomes the position of council. But the community certainly knows what their local councillors are thinking and their advocacy position.
The community will see this with the Council Plan. It’s a document that shows what you’ve said you want us to action and deliver. It’s our guiding strategy for the next three years and it’s not politically driven, it’s community outcome driven. Some components of the plan will be aspirational as we work towards achieving funding or planning for them in the future. Our representation of community issues will also become more evident now the council team is settling in well and building new relationships within the organisation. Importantly, with the return to community oriented committees and portfolio positions, councillors will be more accessible and vocal on a whole range of issues relevant to the community. No-one is naive to the fact that politics does play a part in local government, but it can’t be the crux of any debate or decision making. For councillors, it must be about what’s best for the Geelong region and the Geelong region only. Case in point is the recently announced City Deal for Geelong. The timing is good for us. We have very eager local state and federal members wanting to engage and get long-awaited major projects underway. While there is considerable robust debate and discussion behind the scenes, the council is standing firm on holding the political parties to their promises and advocating the need to deliver what the community is asking for. The greater the freedom of speech, the better our ability to fight for those outcomes that the community have asked of us.