... an appeal to Member for Gilmore Joanna Gash to put herself forward as a mayoral candidate in the upcoming local government election.While honoured by the suggestion, Mrs Gash said she intended to see out her term as Federal Member and therefore she wouldn't entertain the idea. However, she did encourage others to come forward and offered to give them a few tips if they wanted them.Likewise, State MP Shelley Hancock... Several callers suggested Mrs Hancock would make an excellent and formidable candidate but she, too, is committed to represent the community at a different level of government. She, too, had words of encouragement for any erstwhile candidates.
I welcome this and will certainly find an early opportunity to take up Joanna's and Shelley's offers of tips and encouragement. As also I look forward to discovering what candidates they can coax forward. As I said at the beginning of this process, I don't care where they come from, I only care that we build a council of people committed to openness, accountability and community.
We will all need to work closely, at Federal, State and Local Government levels in the next four years. No level of government seems to comprehend or be prepared to speak aloud about the maelstrom of social and community problems that will rush at us when petrol gets to $3 and $4. This is the elephant in the room which has capacity to destroy lives, families, businesses, nutrition, recreation and happiness. The broad and simple levers of the Reserve Bank and budget policy will not do the job.
We are going to have to build community ways of working on solutions, attacking the issue of which level of government is responsible AFTER we build the ideas.
cheers
Dennis
