Election time - 22 March 2023

Published on 24 March 2023

It’s the NSW State election this weekend and although our local council elections are a year or so behind us, I doubt there is a single councillor who won’t remember how it feels. We recall the anxiousness, the sheer mental effort and the excitement that our state candidates are experiencing right now.

After Saturday, we’ll know who we’ll be working with for the next four years. In the leadup, if you’re looking to quiz your potential State representatives on how they’ll represent local issues, here’s what I’d suggest you ask them:

Ask your candidate, if elected, what are their plans for Jamberoo Mountain Road? It was a state road, but the government abdicated ownership, now we must beg, cap in hand to receive funding for repairs. We need the state’s help, if not to take it back, to provide enough money to go beyond repairing this vital artillery road. We need to rebuild it better, so it will stay solid through the next downpour and the next decade.

Ask the party reps if their candidate will step up on water and sewerage. Our state-managed water and sewerage utilities, stormwater and water management systems have been allowed to deteriorate to a Dickensian state. Poor health, overflows, a big pong and toilet paper bubbling up in the main street after every storm is unacceptable.

In terms of local planning, we must work with a set of local planning regulations that were made in Macquarie Street back in 1993. During the past 40 years, the legislation has had so many tweaks and stitched-up sections it looks Frankenstein.

Ask your candidate: will they be providing additional resources to work with councils to make a new fit-for-purpose system that is sympathetic to our needs and not just the needs of developers? And while they’re at it, what will they do to improve the NSW Planning Portal to enable it to deliver efficiencies and reduce costs for councils?

We live in a lovely spot, and thankfully many of us have secure housing, but we’re in the midst of a state-wide housing crisis. Housing is a basic human need and key to a healthy, prosperous and equitable society. Ask how your candidate plans to work with Kiama Council on design, masterplanning and the acquisition of appropriate sites while retaining our valued green spaces. Also, what can they do to ensure our children and key workers are not priced out of local markets?

Tell your candidate that your council and communities across our LGA are suffering from the impacts of skills and labour shortages, which slow economic recovery and hamper productivity. Will they invest in initiatives to attract and retain skilled labour to local government and local businesses, particularly in regional areas such as ours?

Will they invest in training and professional development beyond the metro areas? And what initiatives will they instigate to assist local farmers, businesses and the visitor economy?

We also need investment in better waste, recycling, green power and circular economy solutions.

You can be assured that, whoever is elected, your Mayor and the Council will work with them closely, collaboratively and tirelessly to achieve great outcomes for our area.

Best of luck to all who are running.