The Daily Advertiser continues its series of questions and answers with council candidates.
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Wagga Business Chamber general manager Michelle Bray spent eight years working at council and has been involved with business for close to 20 years.
Steven Wait is the sales manager at Thomas Bros and has had a lifelong association with Tolland Football Club.
Michelle Bray
Does your role with the business chamber make you beholden to business?
I think I have enough experience to be able to look at the whole picture. My knowledge base is quite huge and I’m one of the few candidates that does have eight years experience in local government. I’m able to look at what’s the best broad outcome for the town.
Getting a lot of the business stuff right will result in fixing a lot of the other social issues in the community. I am pro-business, but I think I have enough depth of experience to make some very holistic decisions.
Business won’t be my sole focus, it’s all of my experience as well. I’m not just the business chamber candidate.
Do you think council needs more women?
Diversity is so important for any committee. We need a broad cross-section of representation including people from multicultural backgrounds, people from the Aboriginal community, people with disabilities and carers and a balance of gender representation.
How do you rate the current council’s performance?
Having worked in local government I will admit often it is “easier said than done”. Often there’s legislation that can hinder you. I don’t think I’ll get in and solve the ills of the world in three days, but I do think there’s a lot of room for improvement, particularly around planning and zoning.
What are the biggest issues facing Wagga?
I think the biggest issue is how difficult it is for businesses to do business in Wagga. A lot of the businesses are saying there’s a great deal of legislation and red tape getting in the way. This is coming up so often we can’t ignore it.
A lot of businesses in Bomen are being impacted by poor zoning and planning issues and a lack of infrastructure in that area. We need to look at what we do with our development applications and see if we can improve that process.
I’m hearing all the time it’s a lot easier to do business in Albury and I want to know why that is. People feel like there’s a barrier every time they’re trying to get their business to succeed.
We need a multi-level carpark, it’s been highlighted in strategies from 2003 and 2008. Businesses are telling us about this all of the time and we need to make sure it happens, not just for business but for the disabled, the ageing population and people with kids.
What unique abilities can you bring to council?
I’ve dealt with a very broad cross section of the community. I’ve been in road safety, I’ve sat on mental health committees, organised a disability forum, sat on the seniors’ advisory committee, managed the youth interagency group and in my earlier career I dealt with business at the Business Enterprise Centre. I’ve sat on so many diverse committees that I bring a wealth of knowledge across a lot of sectors, eight years’ local government experience and a proven business acumen that I think I will be able to lend toward being a councillor.
Steven Wait
You’ve run unsuccessfully in the past, why are you running again?
I’ve been involved with the Pascoe family for a long time and I’ve got massive respect for Kerry, I’ve seen what he does behind the scenes, he always puts together a strong group of people to run and I think anyone on our ticket would make an excellent councillor. Love him or hate him, what I see him do behind the scenes is amazing and the effort he puts in to the city.
I’m passionate about our city and local business. I work in a local business that employs 112 people and I’m really passionate about seeing local business thrive. We basically pay the mortgages of 112 people and feed 112 families, it’s important that small business has the ability to grow.
Do we need “common sense” in the council chamber?
I’m not sure how common “common sense” is. Physically you can’t achieve everything so you need to look at where you get the best bang for your buck with the money that the town’s got.
You need to have common sense in business and in government as well. We’ve seen our staff double in the past five years and it’s great that we can employ more people. If that could be replicated across the city it would lead to sustainable growth.
What are the biggest issues facing Wagga?
Town planning has some challenges. I hear from a lot of people the parking on the main street is a problem and obviously attracting business and growth for the city. The wishlist would be endless but the money pit isn’t.
As someone who was “anti” rate rise, how do you feel about the “special” rate to build a flood levee?
We were all part of the floods; we were down here at 3am moving cars because if the levee broke the CBD would have been in a fair bit of trouble. That was a pretty up close and personal look at how important the upgraded levee banks were.
When something like that happens it does change your stance. The whole of the CBD was shut down for two or three days. It certainly changes your mind on whether a small increase could go to funding something like that.
What’s your vision for the future of sports in Wagga?
It’s got to be a long-term approach but one where the steps are measurable and achievable. Say if we wanted a synthetic pitch somewhere in town, we might not get it next year but let’s put some measures in place and some timelines that are actually achievable, not so it’s a never-ending dream.