Well, here we are just around the corner from local government elections, with locals trying to make up their minds about who they will vote for and who they won’t.
The Richmond Valley election has 22 candidates in four groups A, B, C, and D, and one lone independent, vying for seven positions on council, including mayor. That means that two out of three candidates who stick their hands up will not be elected. Eleven of the 23 are women, many of them newbies to local government. And at least eight of the 23 are old hands having served on Richmond Valley or another council.
Long memory?
Group A with five candidates (two women, three men) is led by former general manager of Richmond Valley Council, John Walker. He’s also served as a council general manager in Lismore and in Western Australia and been a councillor in Sydney.
A well-known proponent of coal seam gas while GM with RVC, Walker does not seem to have garnered voting preferences with any of the other teams. Given his criticism of events at the Casino Livestock Exchange I expect he’ll get support from a segment of the farming community who are not happy about council’s handling of the exchange and want to send a message. But those with long memories are unlikely to support him.
Preferences
Group B with six candidates (three women and three men) is headed by longstanding councillor Robert Hayes, and backed by former councillor Daniel Simpson. The Hayes group is sharing preferences with current mayor Robert Mustow’s group D (one woman and three men, all current councillors from Casino).
Indigenous representation
Then there’s Group C (five women and two men) led by businesswoman Lyndall Murray from Evans Head with a team which is new to local government but with reasonable name recognition for several of her running mates including a former teal and a Bandjalang woman. Apparently they chose to not share preferences with any of the other groups so that they could maintain their independence.
And finally Bill Drew from Casino, the lone ranger, standing for council all by himself. Drew is probably best known in the Aboriginal community.
So, how will this all play out? Elections are hard to predict but with Mustow and Hayes sharing preferences, having significant long-term name recognition and familiarity as well as incumbency with strong connections to Casino where the voter numbers are, it is likely they will get a majority of the seats with two or perhaps, at a stretch, even three from the other two groups. While Walker is probably the best performer in recent meet-the-candidate sessions, his history with CSG may haunt him at the polls even though he has moved away from it. The fact that his group has no preference swap will impair his and his group’s chances.
Leaders of all four groups are also standing for mayor. Incumbency is important and it is more than likely that Mustow will be reelected particularly with the preference swap.
So, with most people tending to vote above the line in local government elections, it is unlikely that we will see many new faces on council. But with residents and ratepayers in the mid-Richmond not all that happy with council’s performance on the Iron Gates development, and rates and roads, who knows what might happen? ‘Better the devil you know’ may win out in the end even though there are some damn good new candidates standing. The choice is up to us. Same old or a change?
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