Council aspiration
Horsham Rural City residents could appoint one of the state’s youngest elected officials to local government, as a dedicated community servant declares his 2024 Horsham council intentions.
Bart Turgoose, 18, has declared he will throw his hat in the ring for election to become a Horsham Rural City councillor at the next Victorian council elections in October 2024.
Mr Turgoose is the first person to publically declare their intentions to stand for the council and, if elected, would become Horsham council’s youngest ever councillor.
Despite his young age, Mr Turgoose has gathered a long list of community and committee contributions across the region.
He is well-known across the municipality for starting a worm-farm business at 13 years-old, going on to pursue both a photography business and claytarget shooting business before he had finished high school.
He said it was important there was generational ‘shift’ across regional councils, which he said often carried a perception among many young people that councils remained dominated by ‘older’ people.
“There is not great communication from young people to council and that is often because young people perceive there is always a bunch of older, mostly men, running the show,” he said.
“My nomination is about getting young people, with a different standpoint on issues, onto council to give the municipality a different outlook.”
He said he believed the age of an elected official should not disqualify someone from office, and it was important to have people of all ages representing the municipality.
Mr Turgoose was a member of Horsham’s youth council in 2022 and won the council’s young citizen of the year award in 2021.
He was shortlisted last week for two 7News Young Achiever Awards recognising his Horsham Agricultural Society and Horsham Fishing Competition contributions, among other endeavours.
He said he was eager to use his ‘youth lens’ to encourage change.
“I find myself out in the community a lot in several different capacities and if there is one thing you need to be a good councillor, it’s that you need to be in touch with your community,” he said.
“Now I am 18, I have the right to vote and to stand as an electoral candidate.
“That has opened my mind to what I can do for my community. “I love to learn and I love to listen. “I have been listening to my community for years and it is time for me to use that memory bank to help progress the community in every way possible.”
Bart Turgoose said he was eager to ‘help’ and ‘lift’ his generation and he hoped his nomination could inspire other young people to become involved with local government and community development.
“I would be so happy if I was elected to council and that helped another young person think that they could do it, too. It is so important to encourage young people to become more involved in government to get their communities moving,” he said.
“Some people complain a lot about young people these days, that they are inside all the time and they are doing drugs — but let’s focus on the good.”
He said he was declaring his election intentions more than 18-months in advance so he had time to communicate with residents.
Mr Turgoose operates his photography and sport-shooting businesses, is a Horsham Agricultural Society committee member and works in communications for Buloke Shire and Optus at Horsham.
“I have a real love for Horsham. It is a great place to live. I don’t know many other places where everyone gets along, everyone helps out and chips in for good causes. Horsham is an amazing country town and, for a place of nearly 20,000 people, to still have that little town feel where people are always willing to help others, is great,” he said.
“I wanted to be police officer when I was younger so I could help people. But there are a lot of ways to help people and being an elected official is one of those ways.”