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www.theguardian.com.au Friday, October 7, 2016

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PROPERTIESTARGETED IN POLICE RAIDS

Having their say

PETER BANNAN

THE candidates in this month’s Swan Hill council elections made their pitch to voters on Tuesday night at The Guardian’s candi-dates forum.

More than 40 people gathered at the Swan Hill Town Hall to hear from the 15 candidates who are standing for seven places on council, ahead of the October 22 count.

The Swan Hill bridge, retaining youth in the region, upgrading sports facilities, social engage-ment, better health services, business, agriculture and indus-try growth were passionately at the forefront of the candidates’ platforms.

All four Central Ward positions will be fi lled by new councillors after councillors Jessie Kiley, Jim Crowe and Greg Cruickshank de-clined to re-stand.

Former mayor and Central Ward councillor Michael Adam-son resigned from his post earlier this year.

Mayor Les McPhee will be chal-lenged in the Lakes Ward by Allen Ridgeway while Cr Gary Norton faces opposition in the Murray-Mallee Ward from Barry Waylen and Gregg Cook.

Central Ward candidate Roger Day and Cr Norton were absent from the forum to respectively fulfi l their community and coun-cil roles, but forwarded state-ments, while Robinvale Ward in-cumbent Cr John Katis, who was unchallenged, decided against attending.

Candidates were given five minutes each to present their pitch before a 30-minute ques-

tion time from the fl oor. Cr McPhee, who is standing for

a third term, said he was still pas-sionate about what he could do for the municipality, but urged candidates to think about issues beyond the new four-year term.

“Issues raised by candidates are issues previously discussed at some point, but not all of them,” Cr McPhee told the crowd during his address.

“As councillors, we have to plan for longer than four years. We have a four-year term, we have to look at what happened previ-ously, like the Heartbeat of the Murray, drag strip and natural gas.

“These things didn’t happen in four years; we have to plan not just for the four years, but for 10, 15 and 20 years into the future.”

Cr McPhee said it wasn’t about what councillors wanted, but what ratepayers and residents wanted.

“It’s ideal to have passion for your own ward but you must vote for all issues across the whole shire,” he said.

Cr McPhee told the crowd that economic development was about encouraging new and ex-isting businesses to expand.

“Things like natural gas gives us the opportunity to bring these new businesses to the region be-cause energy is a cheaper source than electricity,” he said.

“Someone spoke about busi-nesses leaving the district, well natural gas gives us the opportu-nity to encourage and value add.”

Cr McPhee urged voters to con-sider their vote seriously, with at least four new faces to be elected onto council.

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Having their sayHaving their say

Swan Hill Rural City Council Lakes Ward

incumbent Les McPhee has

urged candidates to look beyond just four years when making

crucialdecisions.