Hi Everyone,

I haven’t made a post in a while, so I thought I’d make an update and let you know how things are progressing in the Ballina Shire.

In one sentence, as best as they can.

Having been in council now since September I want to provide my honest observations of what real world politics is like from a normal citizen’s perspective that’s yet to become lost in day to day political life.

Let’s cover some political realities.

Reality One.  We’ll never have enough money to get everything done that everyone wants.

There’s are unlimited wants and needs of the community and limited funds, there is no way that I see, that we could ever fund everything in the shire that we want, it’s impossible.  Ballina Shire Council, is financially one of the best positioned councils in NSW and yet we still cannot fund everything that the community wants, can we fund all of the things the community requires, aka the no frills of government, most definitely, but then you’ve got your upgraded sporting facilities, community halls, and literally hundreds of other projects the community is after that we just don’t have the money to pay for.

Even when looking at the basics of roads, waste, sewerage there’s still a backlog there, we could spent millions on it to bring it all up to speed but then we’d have no money left, so frankly it’s dumb financial policy let alone the fact that you’ve gone out and brought all this new infrastructure and then there’s the question of how are you going to finance it’s maintenance so that isn’t an option.

Reality Conclusion

Unless the day comes that the state governments are dissolved and money goes straight from federal to the local community then you’re always going to have a shortfall in funding, and even when that happens, at some point you will still come across a shortfall, because the more you have the more people want, it’s a never-ending cycle of growth and development and it’s so highly integrated into the thought patterns and behaviours of modern day society to grow and get more of this and more of that, that while as long as you have that you’ll have the problem that there’s no enough to go around.

So no matter what happens, we’re never going to get everything we would like, we will never get everything we want done.

This is frustrating, particular for the elected councillors because day in day out, they make promises that this will be done or that will be done and in the end it doesn’t happen.  Councillors, or politicians in general for that matter could stop making promises, could stop saying things will get done, but they’ll have a hard time getting re-elected on the basis that they promise nothing!

And so the cycle goes on! So Councillors are ruled once again by human behaviour, stuck in a ride that we just can’t get off.

Reality Two.  Yes it is happening you just didn’t know it.

As a citizen we’re ALWAYS asking, why aren’t they doing this, why aren’t we doing that etc etc etc Well the reality is that it’s happening you just didn’t know it.  Once again another human behaviourism if you can’t see it in front of you, or it’s not in the media then it apparently doesn’t exist.  One of the best quotes I’ve heard thus far in council was from one of the Senior Managers at council who said “I’ve been involved with council for 20 years and I still don’t know everything that council does!”  The jobs, tasks and projects council is involved in are probably well into the thousands.

I guarantee you no matter what your thought is, it’s lying around somewhere in council in a file, a staff members head or on the meeting agenda.

At any given time, the staff on the ground, the middle management, the senior managers and the councillors never and will never know absolutely everything that’s going on in council at any given day and of that percentage that the councillors know of, the average person on the street probably knows about 3% of that.

There’s a selected few that will know probably 20-40% of what’s going on, and maybe one or two that know about 70-80% but beyond that the majority don’t know what’s going on.  I know, because I was one of them pre-September!

Reality Conclusion

Unless its staring you in the face or if it’s part of your day to day environment you’ll either not know or not care about what’s going on in the political arena, most people don’t until it affects them directly.  This all comes down to another human behaviourism which one again we’re all controlled and governed by.

Reality Three.  YES it does make sense, you just have to do the research.

There’s been thousands of times in the media and in general where individuals have complained about the “idiocy” of council, or any form of government for that matter, why are they doing it that way, why this process it’s stupid blah blah blah.

No matter how stupid you think something might be, no matter how ridiculous the procedure or request by council, I can GUARENTEE you there’s a legitimate reason for it, if you delve into the background enough.

People think of common sense and assume that due process follows this, sounds great in theory but the reality is that we have state and federal laws and regulations that have been formed over hundreds of years (thousands if you want to go back further) and they’ve constantly been built on and built on to keep up with the times, to take in consideration new information, events, legal cases and a zillion other factors, the end result is you get some very good well refined laws and regulations, while on the flip side you get some very mixed up ones and numerous ones in conflict with each other.

Governments are ultimately ruled by our system we’ve built upon for hundreds of years now, there are rules and regulations in place that we have to follow and that’s unfortunately that.

Reality Conclusion

The reality is that we’re bound to our “great” system we build hundreds of years ago and it’s cause/effect relationship, next time you blame the “idiot” government for doing something in a certain way, look again and do the research you may well find it was your great great grandparents that initiated your troubles!

Reality Four. It’s going to take years, get used to it.

The unfortunate reality is that to get the community to identify and agree on it’s priorities, to then get the funding, then get the plans, policies and resgulations put forward then to get the stakeholders involved and working together, then to finally do a project and then get it complete, it takes a ridiculous amount of time and unfortunately there’s nothing we can do about it.

From an outsiders view point a simple project looks like it’s taking a century to do, internally it’s just going through the standard processes.

It’s frustrating as all hell, everyone is frustrated by the lack of progress from getting an idea from concept to reality, but no matter which way you look at it, there’s hundreds of elements in any given project or task, hundreds of stakeholders, hundreds of random factors including funding factors, and all it takes is for ONE of them to hold up a project for years. It’s the fundamental difference between public and private sector if a private sector wants to do something, they just do it, they don’t need to consult anyone, they’re private it’s for their own benefit they do it, done, sometimes they can even ignore stakeholders and most of the obstacles anyway, as they often do.

The public sector doesn’t have that option because fundamentally it’s there or the public, so things take time. 

Reality Conclusion

It’s a frustrating process, I know everyone in council wants projects to be delivered as quickly as possible, every stakeholder wants it, the community wants it, but the process doesn’t enable it to do it, sometimes you get lucky sometimes all the stars align and you get what you want.  For example, I am convinced that if Janelle Staffin wasn’t elected federally, we’d still be waiting another 30 years for the Alstonville bypass, it was just that her and a number of other factors all came into play and aligned themselves and BOOM we got progress on the bypass.

And That about sums it up!

I think in summary we’re at the mercy of the system we’ve created, for all of the great things our modern systems, laws and societies bring us they also bring a number of burdens and hold us back just the same.

Changes unfortunately aren’t made as quickly as a news article or a TV commercial they takes years and decades. 

The problem is that we’ve created a society that expects everything now, the magic pills are all around us, the “Buy Now Pay Later”, the lets hand out home loans to everyone mentality and work out how they’ll pay for it later, the ab rocker that gives you rock solid bodybuilder abs in 30 days.

The reality is results take time, sometimes a lifetime, it takes decades to change some things and in many cases even longer to change society and human behaviour.

It’s unfortunate, it’s frustrating but it’s what we’ve created, it’s what we have to work with, we need to stop criticizing the system as individuals and start working with it and for it, we need to change our behaviours on a macro level and eventually over our lifetime we’ll see the results.

It’s the old quote “Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country”

Or maybe something a little more modern, From the film Bruce Almighty

“If you want a miracle….Be the miracle”

Regards,

Cr Ben Smith

This will be up on the Ballina Shire Website shortly, but I thought I’d post it up on here too as I’m sure a lot of people are a little bit curious exactly who I am and where I come from, so here it is…

Cr Ben Smith is a new young fresh face on Ballina Shire Council, elected in September 2008.

Ben is the youngest person ever elected to Ballina Shire Council, offering a unique perspective of ideas, thoughts and strategies for the long term future of the shire.

Ben comes from a background in software engineering, having developed and released business software worldwide with Australia’s largest software companies, and has a background in small business spanning almost a decade, specializing in the field of IT and communications.

Ben, more recently has been working with the majority of the clubs industry in Northern NSW as a lead IT consultant.

Ben loves the lifestyle our area has to offer and is dedicated to long term sustainability of the shire, both environmentally and economically.

Ben is passionate about empowering the community, to give citizens a voice and a chance to have greater say about the direction of our shire.

Ben is currently single; his interests include bush walking/mountaineering, gym, salsa and the nightlife scene.

I spent today reading through the council papers, researching and preparing for the ordinary meeting on Thursday.

I’m really excited about the upcoming council meeting this week, it’s going to be a big one, lots of interesting and controversial issues and additionally, the potential to make some solid progress for the Ballina Shire abroad.

Everything is on the table this month, Ballina’s LEP, various donations to be considered, Cr Jeff Johnson has put up some interesting motions, you have councillor expenditure policy, some interesting statistical data on fuel consumption and of course, Allan Rich makes a cameo appearance back from the grave to provide support for the motion for video recording of ordinary council meetings that will surely create a thriller atmosphere in the chamber.

Almost like a plotline in a movie, and ironically would make for interesting viewing, ha.

Video Recording Ordinary Council meetings with provisions for taking into considering of privary is workable, and an important part of the process of maintaining an informed electorate and healthy democracy.

Notice how, however I was very specific with the video recording, there are legitmate privacy reasons that will need to be addressed and will be addressed.  There are also, for obvious reasons the necessity to only film ordinary meetings and not confidential sessions or committee meetings.

Any proposal of this nature needs to be thoroughly thought through and done properly, and I’m hoping that will be done on Thursday and we can get it through in a comprehensive form that supports these ideals.

As I write this it’s 9pm now and I still haven’t had dinner, but before I finish up I do want to touch on the issue of fuel consumption which makes a return appearance in the October meeting.

Back in the July 2008 meeting council requested that a report on council’s fuel consumption be presented to council by the October meeting, this report has been produced and the results of it, to myself atleast, are extremely interesting.

The report explains that diesel amounts to over 70% of our fuel consumption.  The report also notes a large portion of that diesel usage is from the ferry and other heavy vehicles the council owns.  Further to this, the report basically explains to meet our target of reducing our fuel consumption by 30%, council is continuing to downsize its fleet and look at other alternative ideas.

For a number of weeks now I had been looking at ways to reduce the running costs of the ferry so that we can sustain the ferry in the long term, biodiesel was an idea that came to mind, after further discussing the idea in general with John Truman and realising the true potential of biodiesel within our shire I have discovered, in light of the report on fuel consumption, that biodiesel has massive potential and it’s usage can save the shire up to $700,000 pa. 

In addition to this, it’ll reduce council’s co2 footprint by around 78% (source: US Dept. Energy and Argiculture did a report on the use of biodiesel) and thus go a long way in achieving our reduction goals.

So basically in a nutshell, this is where I’d like to see council take a potential biodiesel program…

- Council will work with local cafes, take away businesses etc within the shire, collecting waste cooking oil that would normally be thrown away or end up in landfill.
- These businesses receive recognition and support.
- Council then uses this to make it’s own biodiesel.
- The biodiesel is then used within the fleet to reduce costs and any surpluses would be onsold to the community via whatever viable means of doing so.

By adopting this we will be:
- Saving around $700,000 pa, massive savings
- Reducing our carbon footprint by around 78%
- Reducing landfill/waste within the shire.

Additional advantages of adopting such a concept include the following:
- Bio diesel works in existing diesel engines no need to fork out money for new vehicles to adopt the new technology.
- Minimal upfront cost, we can get a trial plant up and running that’ll produce 500 litres per week for around $5,000
- As above, potential for massive ROI.
- Bio diesel can be produced for as little as 24 cents per litre, and the price will be much more consistent and will fluctuate less than the price of petroleum based diesel.
- It will drastically reduce the operational costs of our south ballina ferry operation, so that we can sustain affordable fares.
- It will potentially provide for additional commercial opportunities for the council to then onsell surplus biodiesel.

The list goes on, but basically this is a key policy I’ll be working on over the coming couple of months, and hopefully we can get a successful trial out of it within 3-6 months, and then if successful move it into full swing.

Anyway, it’s getting late, so i’m going to finish up, feel free to comment.

Goodnight all.

Cr Ben Smith

http://www.crikey.com.au/Media-Arts-and-Sports/20081017-And-the-Wankley-Award-goes-to-Conroys-net-filtering-scheme.html#comments

http://www.computerworld.com.au/index.php/id;1399635276;fp;16;fpid;0

The whole thing about federal politics was last year everyone just wanted to get rid of howard, and fair enough, he was becoming far too cocky and lost touch with the average man on the street, along came Rudd who promised the world, a populist and at the time seemed to be a good option, he started the term well, and then has managed to continually screw things up from there, the alcohol tax, which was nothing more than a revenue raiser, and as the people on the ground know, was a complete balls up in deterring “binge drinking” and other anti-social behaviour.

People just changed their habits, they simply outsmarted dumb policy.

Now Mr.Conroy and our friends at the Rudd government have decided to top that by coming up with dumber policy, this policy is the concept of filtering the internet.

During the federal election last year, the howard government wrongly at the time made labor out to be communists, which in my mind was extreme and just plain wrong, yet, nearly 12 months later we’ve been dealt up with an internet censorship policy that, the only country it compares to is China itself.

The Rudd Government is proposing to filter internet access for every Australian in the country, whether you like it or not.  They will be offering a child friendly based filter and an “opt out” option(which is still filtered) where you can have a little more access then your 12yr old.

There are a ridiculous number of problems with such a proposal, The obvious one is choice, we are adults, we are human beings and we have the right to make responsible decisions for ourselves and our children and thus view whatever we damn please on the internet.

Controlling what people can and cannot view is a communist policy, plain and simple, it is anti-democratic in every way possible.

The other problem is that it’ll block some sites which we should have full access to view, filters are not perfect, more so, in relation to the filters as if Australia’s internet speeds weren’t slow enough already compared to the rest of the world, well guess what? your internet just got slower.  Filtering takes time, and the end result is the censorship would create additional problems with broadband in Australia that we just don’t need.

The final thing I’d like to point out is that, as with all good dumb policy, smart people will just work around it, there are a number of services on the internet, that you can sign up with and utilize a proxy server to send and receive your information, so for example, you can have your data proxied via the US, which means whatever can be accessed there, you’ll have access to, high school kids have been using this trick for years, to get around school filters, and I suspect the next day, if this legislation gets through, you’ll have tutorials floating around the internet on how to get around the filter.

Assuming those tutorials aren’t filtered.

It’s been proven world wide any government that has tried to legislate the internet has always failed miserably, The US and their Net neutrality act is one such recent example.

But the bottom line is this, it’s just plain idiotic and I would suggest that the common man would already know and be aware of this fact, and it just goes to show just how out of touch with reality federal politics is, and I can only pray for the day that decisions affecting the common man, are actually made by the common man, and not by a circus full of clowns.

Cr Ben Smith

Well, technically I’m now 3 days into the job as a councillor.

I’ve just spent my time this weekend rotating between the process of partying, sleeping, researching and reading up on various council documents, a diverse lifestyle.

Friday afternoon I went into council chambers for the first time as a councillor, which was a unique feeling, you’re walking straight into a pre-established, somewhat large operation, as a key decision maker straight off the bat.

There’s no corporate ladder to climb, no small business to build, it’s just all there right in front of you.

I can see how people’s egos can build up in this kind of arena so quickly, one day there’s just an average joe blow, doing their 9-5 job, the next, they walk into one of the most important buildings in the shire, greeted as the new “bosses” of the place and are told they have to now make decisions that will impact on the lives of 40,000 people.

This is the biggest challenge that I’ve come to terms with over the last few days.  It’s not about the decisions themselves, look at any given ordinary council meeting and you’ll find 70-80% of the time councillors agree on the decisions, it’s about the challenge of not letting the system destroy your identity, who you are as a person.

The arena of politics and specifically government itself is full of a lot of obstacles, a lot of viewpoints, a lot of stakeholders, a lot of flaws, laws, framework etc.  It’s a minefield, and it’s very easy to avoid the field all together then make your way through it.

As a new councillor, or even an existing one at that, you’ve got these obstacles thrown at you every day of your term and it’s very easy to react to them, in a moment of fear or doubt, avoid them, dodge them or do whatever you have to do to play the “game” of politics.

But ultimately, by doing so, it’ll destroy your sense of self, your true self.

You may come out of it a good politician, but a good politician and a good person isn’t necessarily the same thing.

It’s a real internal conflict for me, and many times I sometimes ask myself if I should really be in politics at all, I know there’s a lot in regards to leadership and strategic management that I’ll learn in this new environment, but I’m concerned that there’s other things in this environment that I really would rather not to learn.

The other thing I’m concerned about, being in such a serious environment, is that I’ll lose my ability to have fun, which is absolutely crucial to a good life regardless of age in my opinion.

So with that said I’ve learnt it’s important to stay true to yourself, to not let any new environment, whether it be council or anything else in life for that matter, overwhelm and control you, but even more so, you can’t be afraid.

You need to know that deep down you are enough, that everything you’ll ever need to have a great life and to make good decisions is already inside of you.  The external world tells us otherwise, it’ll tell you, you need to buy this, learn this or do this to be “enough”, you need this house or this car to be “enough”, but the reality is that that’s all essentially bs.

There’s an old Chinese saying “If you cannot find it within yourself, where will you go for it?”.

Everything comes from within.

I’m ready for council, I’m ready for my first chamber meeting this Thursday and I’m looking forward to being myself and putting my best foot forward.

Ben
(Cr Smith) 

Which means that the 3 remaining councillors in C ward are automatically elected, including Myself. 

My result on it’s own disregarding the Mayoral vote, in my opinion was good considering I didn’t occupy all of the booths with volunteers on the day or at pre-poll, had I have done that, I imagine my vote would have increased quite proportionally.

I need to thank all of the members of the community, approx 13%ish that did give me your number one vote, I’ve got a number of things planned that will further democracy and empower the community, in addition to this, I feel that there are a number of issues where a simple, honest, non-political viewpoint would be extremely beneficial and I’ll be offering just that.

I need to also thank ALL of the support I’ve had from every stakeholder and many current Councillors within the shire.  The members of CAN, including Jane Garnier and Marilyn Perkins who have all been extremely supportive, a big thank you to John Felsch and his team of volunteers who actively supported me, a big thank you to to Sharon Cadwallader for her active support and importantly, a big thank you to Allan Rich who has been extremely supportive over the last 12 months.

Everyone who has supported me so far, I am extremely grateful and I look forward to working with you all in the coming years.

Moving Along.

 In politics, the most important thing is to stay true to yourself, soooo many people who had potential or might have been nice people to start out with have came out arseholes who refuse to listen in the end.  They forget who they are and what they stand for, they forget what they’re all about, where they came from, and what it’s like in the real world on a day to day basis.   

 I promise you that I will stay true to myself. 

 My life mantra is “Follow those who seek the truth and run from those who have claimed to have found it.” 

My promise is to maintain this, my promise is to maintain an open viewpoint at all times, I’ll always be seeking new ideas, new information new feedback to make the best decisions possible, I’ll never assume that I have the best idea or I know what’s best, I’ll always be open to discuss, debate and consider anyone and everyones point of view. 

I believe that every single person on this planet has something great to contribute and I hope to empower members of our community to bring that out of themselves and offer it.

My message is all about positivity and I’m excited about what I feel can be achieved when you throw a guy like me into the council dynamic. I’m looking forward to being part of a new council team.  I’m looking forward to dealing with the challenges that lie ahead but most importantly, I’m really looking forward to working with everyone, all members of the community, all the stakeholders and all the councillors because I know that when we all work together as a team we can achieve miracles.

Ben.

 I’ve had people over the last couple of weeks I’ve had lots of offers of support.  I’ve had a lot of overall positive feedback from a number of groups and a number of individuals, sometimes from the least likely places too. I want to state for the record I’m running a donationless campaign.  I’ve refused any financial assistance and I’m spending minimal money on my campaign (mainly because I’ve got too many other things to pay! Not all of us are John Mcains!). I’m doing this as a matter of principal, as a matter of keeping myself honest and trying to set a good example.  This is what I think it’s all about, so I’m leading the way, in any way that I can to offer people a more positive view on politics. So no donations.  It has been surprising, this campaign.  Honestly, I didn’t expect as much support as what I’ve received from people, every person I talk to has been really positive and really supportive. Today at the Tintenbar hall was no exception.I came along to the hall expecting it to be just a quick “Hi I’m Ben Smith, lets answer some questions” but it turned into a “Hi I’m candidate abc I’m going to spend 30 mins being political and putting across very specific views of others and their policies”, I mean, sure it’s politics, but I was hoping for something a little more informal. At any rate, I came with no speech in hand, almost every other candidate came with an entire file of information and fully prepared speeches ready to fire their “vote wining blows”, admittedly, I felt a bit out of place, it’s something of a paradox, there are a lot of parts about politics that I just don’t like, ultimately, all I want to do is help others. I think it’s an important thing to note, for the average voter, that I’m just a normal guy and I don’t go to any effort whatsoever to hide that, I’m not some mighty or egotistical politician working on his ultimately plan or agenda. I’ve never considered myself a politician or even someone who’s passionate about politics, I’m just here to help others, that’s it. Back on topic.   So I did my unprepared speech, which turned out pretty good, I got across my ultimate message that I’m just here to get the job done and at the end of the day all of us want to make things better, we all have a lot in common, we all want to make this place great and essentially offering my vision.   After my speech, John Felsh stood up and did a speech, I had never met and spoken with John personally before and initially I didn’t know what to make of him, then he threw in a few jokes, and I started to realise the guy was a pretty positive, experienced guy. But then, he surprised me. John openly vouched for me and asked that people vote for me, he was impressed with my abilities, he was impressed that I could stand up and do a speech completely unscripted. John said that I will be a councillor (almost as if he already knew it) He also hoped that I become Mayor one day, he said all of this with passion and conviction, I was somewhat speechless, but thankful none the less. It’s nice to receive this kind of strong support, but I make a conscious effort to not let it get to me, some ego is good, but too much will ultimately destroy you. But ego aside, what it does do, is give me perspective on things and make me realise that I may actually get in as a councillor, I may well end up there, and I may well have to stand up and put my best foot forward. It’s a bit of a scary thought, but on the same note, it’ll be a new challenge, so I know it’s something that’ll help me grow and ultimately become a better person. So if I does happen, I’ll be looking forward to it.  If it doesn’t happen, then it’ll be another learning experience. Sometimes you win, sometimes you learn.   Ben.

Some people get the donkey vote others the reverse and some, somewhere in the middle.

 Reasonably happy with my position on the ballot paper obviously there’s one better position I could have gotten, I haven’t ever really had much luck with election draws so far, the donkey vote is typically worth between 1-1.5% which is always a handy addition to any result, it’s a little uninspiring to admit that but that’s just human nature at work.

 I’d like to also think that a bit of good policy and some new ideas are worth a few votes too, but we shall wait and see.

 Ben

How are we all? I am quite excellent today.

Well it’s official I dropped the forms off this morning to the Returning Officers(The people that oversee an election) and I’m back playing this funny little game we call politics.

 Last time around, I honestly feel that despite throwing a bit of humour into my state election campaign, I still feel as though I was a bit reserved, this time, I’m withdrawing all reservations.

 I’ll be out there saying what everyone is thinking but no one has the balls to say, I will be more open and honest than any politician has ever been, I will literally speak my mind, none of this strategically calculated BS, no gimmicks, straight out as it is.

So get ready.

To kick things off below is my first Press Release.

 I’ll try to update this blog at least twice a week and I’ll do my best to respond to any legitimate comments.

Cheers guys.

 Ben aka Smithy.

Press release
From Ben Smith, candidate for the local council elections in Ballina Shire.
Date: 12/8/08
Contact: Ben Smith
Phone: 0415 482 412
E-mail: smithy@benjaminsmith.com.au

Ben smith is back
In 2007, at the last state election, Ben Smith, offered a refreshing, smooth taste that went down well but wasn’t enough to turn the tide on the somewhat inevitable election result. 

Regardless, Ben was happy with the result “I become the first politician to ever do his own beer in an election campaign, name one Australian that wouldn’t be happy with setting that record?  Jokes aside, it was a good experience.   Since then, I’ve learnt a lot and I’m back again with a new and improved formula”.
So what have you been up to lately since we last heard from you?

I’ve been going through a massive transformation, self-actualisation is a big part of my life these days, I’m learning new things about myself everyday.  I’ve started going to the gym 3 times a week now days, eating healthier, constantly searching for new experiences and overall enjoying life.  Beyond that I’ve been busy working away with my existing business and other various ideas and ventures.  I’ve also been doing salsa dancing on and off which is great fun.

Why are you running for council?

Post the state election that I last competed in, I had a number of people approach me and ask me if I have considered running for local council, I had considered it on and off, there’s always a lot to weigh up, but in the end I made the decision to run because I felt there was something unique and refreshing that I could offer to council that I felt no one else really could, if I didn’t think I could offer value to our local council I simply wouldn’t run.

Will you be doing any more cheap, vote grabbing publicity stunts?

I considered making promises I can’t keep, lying, cheating, stealing and corruption, but I want to stand out amongst the pack.  So at this stage, I’ve got nothing planned.  In all seriousness, we’ll wait and see.

Why aren’t you running for Mayor?

I personally feel that as a councillor I can get just as much done as mayor, at the end of the day I don’t really care about titles, to me it’s just about getting things done.

You’re currently 23 yrs old, are you concerned that some people might see that as being too young?

Irrelevant.

I’ve contested elections before, I’ve got just as much experience as other candidates in the relevant areas of my life.

There are mayors out there already that are currently younger than me, ultimately my age is something I bring to the table that none of the other candidates bring, it’s a really exciting opportunity to see what can, and at some point, will happen when you throw some youthful energy and excitement into an otherwise boring council chamber.

I’m always thinking outside of the box, and I can offer a unique style of thought to the council that debatably, is currently missing.

Let’s get down to business, give us some of the issues you’d like to work on at local level?

Rates, always something on the tip of peoples tongues and their wallets, I’d like to review them and essentially give those having a hard time at the moment, a bit of slack.

Environmentally (& Economically) Sustainable Growth, like it or loath it our local area is growing, we essentially can’t change that, but we can change how we go about it, and we can maintain our integrity and our identity as a naturally beautiful area in northern NSW.

As a small business person, I want our area to grow so that our local business community can flourish, but the key word is local, I’m not prepared to let for example some Sydney based CEO who doesn’t give a rats behind tear up our environment for the sake of his share price.  True local economic growth is when more money gets poured into our community and more money stays in it, throwing another big development where the profits end back up in Sydney somewhere is not something which benefits our community, I’m not saying I’m against outsider development, I’m simply saying there are better options.

If you want it in one sentence I’m going to bargain the best deal for our community everytime it’s as simple as that.

Youth Activities and Projects is another big area of mine, being quite young myself, I want the young people of our area to have a good time, and enjoy this awesome part of the world as much as possible.  I think there’s a lot that can be done in this area, simply because it’s never really been on the agenda to begin with, simply because there’s never been someone young on our council!  I’m definitely excited to see what we can do in this area if elected, more to come soon.
Finally, I just want to make Ballina shire a great place to live, and I want to find ways to encourage a greater emphasis on community, I want to see if we can bring more and more community groups to work together so that we can simply get more done, much quicker.  The frustrating thing about politics in general is that it takes so bloody long for things to get done, if they ever do get done, I want to empower individuals and groups of people, give them what they need so that we can get things done, and make our shire better and better each day in my term.

Will you ever run for state or even federal politics again?

It’s hard to say, we like to think we know where we’re going in life and that we’re in total control but control itself is a bit of an illusion, we’ll wait and see, right now at this point in my life the focus is this upcoming election. 
I’d like to think regardless of what the future holds I’ll make some significant contribution to improving the lives of others around me in the future.

One last question, still going to wear the lime green suit?

Haha, I might take it out for a spin at some point during the campaign.  I think it might be time to give my fancy white suit a turn.