Wagga council candidates discuss greyhounds and the pound

Myriam Hribar is the Wagga whistleblower who exposed alleged animal abuse at the Glenfield Road Animal Shelter, which attracted international attention and a petition with 45,000 signatures to improve animal welfare at the pound.

Brett Dale is a goat farmer from Tarcutta who has lived in Wagga for 30 years and served 24 years on the Wagga Show Society.

Is council transparent and accountable enough?

In my dealings I haven't found council to be transparent or accountable.

I applied for the council’s pound policies and procedures under freedom of information and the request was rejected.

The amount of inconsistencies in responses I received from council about animal welfare at the pound were upsetting and they refuse to answer difficult questions.

As for the kitten placed in the freezer while still alive; council told me the kitten was flung into the cage and knocked unconscious, in another response they said he was knocked out accidentally, in council's open letter he was held by the scruff of the neck until he became motionless.

It’s important to have transparency and accountability, because council is responsible for ratepayers' money.

If you're not satisfied with the way the pound complaints were handled, why are you running with a serving councillor?

Yvonne (Braid) was very helpful, she got in touch with us when we emailed council and councillors, she gave us a lot of moral support and kept pressure on council staff to try and improve things at the Glenfield Road Animal Shelter (GRAS). 

Yvonne told council staff we would go to the media if they stopped corresponding with us, which we did.

Are you an animal activist with an axe to grind?

No, I never hold grudges, I can move on but we have to be capable of learning from the past.

I don't have grudges.

I'm a realist, I realise you can't save every animal, my concern is council is responsible for the welfare of animals once they come into the pound and must be looked after properly. 

Given you stood up for alleged animal cruelty at the pound, can voters expect you to be the people’s champion on council?

I don't know whether I can solve all the issues in the world but I will try to my best for the community and especially vulnerable community groups who are afraid to come forward.

Our aged population, children, homeless and animals are vulnerable and I have concern for the welfare of the voiceless.

I find it hard to be brave – to speak out is difficult – but I like the saying "back yourself".

What are the biggest issues facing Wagga?

The parks in the main street are all beautiful but they're neglected in the suburbs.

Parking is a big issue in the main street and I think there has to be more parking available close to the CBD.

I know council is trialling extended parking times in Fitzmaurice Street, but how could you ever go out for lunch when it was only one hour?

Councillors should sit in Marketplace and ask people what they want to see in Wagga; you'd get a great cross-section of people coming through and it’s one way to engage with the community more effectively instead of expecting residents to go to council chambers.

Do farmers have enough representation on council?

Probably not, only two out of ten councillors are farmers.

The rail trail is troubling to some of my neighbours who worry about the occupational health and safety ramifications of a walkway through the middle of their business.

When the rail trail goes straight through the middle of farms it's hard to warrant it, whereas if it was on government land or the sides of roads I'd have no issues at all.

Rural residents also need roads that don't fall in disrepair and are able to cope with larger vehicles.

At the moment rural roads are in disrepair, and while that's mainly due to the wet winter, council needs to fix them up as soon as possible.

With the trots and greyhounds leaving the showgrounds, does council have a responsibility to step in and save the facility?

No.

We've always been independent. We'll miss those income streams but those two licensed tracks always restricted how we could use the grounds and this is an opportunity to diversify our revenue.

We don't knock back council's help, but in the past everyone has seemed to think we should sell up and move out of town.

We'll have to tighten our belts for a little while but we could have more soccer and horse events.

The showgrounds also serves an important community service, it’s high ground and during the last flood the whole facility was full with car yards, Telstra, the mail centre and animals. 

Should council lobby the state government to reinstate greyhound racing?

There's been a few bad eggs that have given the rest of the industry a bad reputation and I'm quite sure the ban will hurt a lot of businesses around Wagga, including vets and food suppliers..

I'd prefer to see greyhounds keep going and I fully support that lobbying effort.

As president of the show society for 14 years and presiding over declining attendance numbers, do you have the nous to manage council?

The show society’s actually financially in the best position it's been in for a while. 

There's been a lot of things out of our control on the show; we have to keep evolving, people's interests change and we have to evolve with it. 

It’s not the only committee I've worked on, I'm also chairman of the Australian Mohair Marketing Organisation.

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