Small 'l' liberals vow to breathe new life into negative and defeatist council

Andrea Schineanu, the lead candidate on the Wagga Women’s Ticket, is hoping to shatter council’s gender glass ceiling.

The CSU academic said the current council is “very blinkered” and is brimming with excitement about the possibilities new blood may bring.

Wagga psychologist Daniel Hayes, lead candidate for Country Labor, was dispatched by Wagga MP Daryl Maguire in last year’s state government election and has turned his hand to council.

The born and bred Wagga boy leads a ticket of five candidates under 40 campaigning for a youthful rejuvenation of council. 

No one's quite sure what impact the gender diversity campaign will have at the ballot box, what's your prediction?

I don’t think we really reached the broader community, the need for diversity is hard to encapsulate in tow or three sentences, but council’s make-up needs to change.

Research and evidence from all over the world shows leadership representative of the community’s gender, culture and various industrial sectors gets the best outcomes.

An all female council would be just as bad as an all male council, neither extreme is good, we’re aiming for a middle ground. 

The current council has a narrow focus on development, planning and development, but the broader community is being ignored.

What are the biggest issues Wagga faces?

There’s not much strategic vision currently and council keeps repeating the same mistakes.

Do we want to continue living on floodplains and spending millions of dollars on insurance each year or should we slowly move important infrastructure to higher ground?

Secondly, there are too many empty shops on the main street, which indicates to me council is full of business people who are not very good at business.

Council needs to think outside the box, work with landlords to devise ways to lower rent or find ways to use empty shops while they’re vacant, like temporary art exhibitions.

Are your political values left or right leaning?

I wasn’t interested in politics at all before now, my interest was in how communities worked. 

I express opinions based on theoretical knwoledge and research evidence and people say most of that is left leaning. 

But I acknowledge the importance of right-wing ideas for business development and innovation. 

How did you become lead candidate of the Wagga Women's Alliance?

We're all working, we're all mums, but my children are the oldest so I can dedicate the most time to council.

Which is not to say the other women wouldn’t have done the role just as well, that’s what women do; balance our commitments.

Should property developers be allowed to serve as councillors?

Property developers have access to inside information on council, even if they excuse themselves form voting. 

If they don’t directly benefit from that information, their family members or close friends do.

Otherwise why are they so keen to be on council?

What are the biggest issues Wagga faces?

A level of conservatism has crept in to council, where the default position is for no change unless convinced otherwise, instead of being excited by possibilities.

Both business and the community are finding it very difficult to work with council as a result.

Secondly, council needs to communicate more effectively with the community. 

For example, people have been unhappy about the state of Farrer Road (which passes by The Riverina Anglican College and connects Coolamon Road to Boorooma Street), but they didn’t know council had a $1.1 million upgrade planned. 

Live-streaming council meetings is one way to communicate and increase transparency. 

Also, there is a deterioration between the council executive and staff and they need to remember they’re on the same team.

Over the years there's been a shift from roads, rates and rubbish to roads, rates and outrage, and while we don’t all have to agree, the culture needs to be more constructive.

What's your vision for Estella and Boorooma?

Estella and surrounding suburbs need to better integrate CSU’s services and resources, to create a mutually beneficial relationship for the university and Wagga.

For example, connecting footpaths so students can utilise the facilities at Estella and surrounds – like the supermarket – and residents can access CSU.

There’s potential for football fields to be used by the community instead of replicating one at Estella.

Wagga is a heartland of conservative politics, is there an appetite for progressive politics on council?

Absolutely, council is not winner takes all like state and federal elections, as nine people are elected.

A good mix of councillors is, without doubt, better than all conservatives, because no one point of view has all the answers.

Despite the conflicts that can arise, it’s far better to have a range of perspectives.

As a psychologist, I’ve seen a lot of research around group-think leading to bad decisions. 

Why do you think you failed in your council campaign four years ago?

We came thirteenth and part of that can be put down to the system, we were a group of two in no man’s land without a box above the line.

Part of it was also not a lot of people knew who I was and over the years since I have shown an involvement and commitment to Wagga.

Will you compete for mayor if you're successful on Saturday?

Let's get past the election first.