SERIOUSLY, IT’S NO JOB FOR JOKERS
ELECTION fever is about to hit us.
I think the general mood is everyone is so disinterested and apathetic we probably all want to call it off as a bad idea. No wonder they made it compulsory – I would suggest people are getting so sick of it soon they will have to pay us to vote. Maybe they already do – nothing like a good pork barreling to attract our vote to a local cause, even if we don’t want it.
You can certainly tell that next year is going to be a council election year. Potential suspects and regular candidates are jumping up and pushing new agendas to get themselves in front of the media. That’s always a clear sign local government elections are on the way – find a cause, run with it, claim you represent the vast majority and try to become your voluminous best.
Oh, and write a letter – suddenly to everyone – make out you have the essayist ability and output of a James Patterson. (Like James is always finding a good murder; you’re murdering us with your disingenuous crap).
Cynical of me I know. And cynics are usually people without a cause. In my own defence, I’m not a particularly good cynic actually; I have causes – boy, do I have causes.
Putting that to one side, it has fascinated me over the years how some people use (abuse) local government elections to just push their own barrow. We have had Gold Coast candidates on just about every topic you can think of – from nudist candidates that wanted to convert Surfers Paradise beach to a canvas of white bums and appendages to candidates that wanted to promote their Elvis repertoire agenda; love me tender et al. Now that is a bloody wide remit.
For some, of course, it is possibly the only meaningful job they can land, provided they actually get in. Harsh but fair. You know the type – they have a go at everything going, then like a new-found religion every election cycle up they pop and try to convince us they are the next great councilor or mayor.
All sorts of would-bes and could-bes – all with a selfpromotion and selfglorification agenda. They just usually lack one key element. They haven’t a clue how to run a bath, usually, let alone a city. Why do we seem to attract them to the fabulous Gold Coast? Why us, Lord?
The State Government is currently making changes to the Local Government Act around council elections. Now some of their ideas are understandable and OK, but some are just aimed at dumbing down the system even further. Almost like it’s a hunt to try to attract the lowest common denominator. Rather than waste the community’s time on questionable candidates with zero experience in running the proverbial bath, it would surely benefit everyone if the bar was raised so that it helped attract the best candidates.
The Gold Coast is one of the biggest councils in Australia, which naturally means it presides over one of the biggest council budgets in the land. Scale is one thing that local government in Queensland actually gets right in the local government mix.
However, this is a two-way street – you then need people who can understand and operate on this scale with quality decision making rather than just rely on the poor old property owner to keep raising council rates way beyond inflation each year to cover poor performance and lack of financial credibility.
So, candidates that pop up from election to election want to convince us about their favourite passion or cause, nude or otherwise, are just not worth considering. Our great city needs the best possible people to fill these roles.
As much as I disagree with him from time to time, we have been blessed with Tom Tate as mayor. During the past six or seven years he has really run the overall city well. We are in a good position financially, particularly when
you consider we had the added cost impost of the Commonwealth Games, and a lot has been achieved. The city is experiencing great growth and growing its national and international identity under his watch. We have a real operator at the wheel.
My hope is he goes again. Finding a competent person to undertake this role is not easy – we have one in Tom, so I hope we can stick with him (and he sticks with us) through the next election cycle. I don’t wish to see a one-issue candidate get up or a person who wants to stand in the raw on Surfers, thanks all the same. We need a quality, competent person who can continue to take our great city forward on every level.
Thank God there are some smart people that want to do this job – I couldn’t think of a more difficult role. Well, maybe barracking for Collingwood comes close.