Council Q and A with Greg Conkey and Mick Henderson

Michael Henderson is running on Councillor Paul Funnell’s ticket. Greg Conkey is a serving councillor and is running as an independent candidate.

Mr Henderson has been a strong proponent of Lake Albert. He has served as commodore of Wagga Boat Club for four years and has a hydraulic service business.

You’ve been outspoken on solving Lake Albert’s water level problems, but are you just a one-issue candidate?

No, I don’t think I am. Being a small business owner, I think we need to reduce the red tape and draw more small businesses to Wagga. 

We’re seeing growth in population and housing, we need more employment, therefore we need to make it easy to attract business.

We also need to look at roads and infrastructure for growth in the next 25 years and start implementing it now instead of being focused on the four-year terms of council. When future councils come along the projects will already be started.

What are the biggest issues facing Wagga?

Unemployment and job security are two of the big ones. There’s a role for council to play as far as trying to make Wagga more viable and easier to access and we should reduce the time it takes for development applications to go through.

The levy bank is another big one, it’s a really touchy subject but of great benefit to North Wagga.

You’re known as an easy-going bloke, but do you have enough ‘mongrel’ to compete in a highly-political council?

Yes, I think I do. I run a local business and dealing with day to day tasks, you’ve got to be hard to survive in the current economic climate.

If I agree with something I’ll strongly push for it to be achieved. You can see that in my continued support of Lake Albert. There’s been 10 years of fighting for inflow infrastructure and we’re yet to see a formulated solution.

We need to make the water level sustainable 12 months per year.

What role should council play to keep Lake Albert viable?

The lake is very important to the city – it’s one of the major landmarks – but also in terms of recreation, tourism and economic value.

We need to continue on with the draft management plan and implement options in the plan over the next 12 to 18 months. 

Even with this recent rain event the problem hasn’t gone away, there’s still the chance the water levels will be reduced.

We can’t go much longer before a serious decision has to be made.

What do you make of the current council’s performance?

I believe if you asked most people in the community to name all of the councillors they couldn’t.

You’ve got the active, outspoken ones achieving things but I believe there are a lot who have sat on their hands and not been proactive enough in making timely decisions to benefit the community.

The time it takes to do many of the major projects council takes on, wouldn’t it be better to sublet those out to private enterprise?

Mr Conkey was the editor of The Leader and has his own public relations business.

You’ve got a strong position on voting below the line, why is that?

There are some very good candidates above the line, but voting below the line gives people the choice of who represents them on council.

Voting above the line, someone else chooses preferences for you and while you may not want to vote for a particular person, your vote might get them elected.

If elected I want to work with everyone, to have a cohesive group and not be beholden to anyone.

I don’t believe in party politics.

You’re seen as a progressive councillor, but do your views on social issues reflect the Wagga community?

We live in a very conservative electorate but at the same time I don’t consider myself a conservative.

If issues need to be raised I will raise them. I normally try for a common sense approach to issues. If it benefits the region, I’m all for it.

What are the biggest issues facing Wagga?

We need an integrated transport strategy so Estella has better access. 

My vision is for Bolton Park, there’s a desperate need for an entertainment, exhibition and conference facility that can seat about 2500 people, so it can hold a large business or service club convention. It could include the visitors centre, a sporting hall of fame and showcase some of the great things we produce here in Wagga. It would take 10 to 15 years, but we need to start the groundwork now.

I’m also passionate about our sustainable energy reserve, my vision is for Wagga to be self-sufficient for energy in the future.

As a councillor, how much responsibility do you take for the erosion of public confidence from issues like Douglas Aerospace?

Bear in mind the Douglas Aerospace decision was made by the previous council, this council had nothing to do with setting it up.

However, the information provided to the previous council showed a very bright future for the aviation industry and it stacked up.

It came unstuck but we came out of it well and I hope in the future we can attract other business to Wagga in that precinct.

This council has worked hard to make sure we’ve achieved the best possible outcome for the community and I believe we’ve achieved that.

You were one of two councillors supporting the Riverina Recovery House. Would you want something like that in your street?

We live in a compassionate community, but not a lot of compassion was shown by at least two councillors when we made that decision.

This was, I felt, a good location for this facility, it was a commercial premises for 60 years, would have been monitored 24/7 and the people using it I believe were committed to beating their drug addiction.

My son and daughter in law and their two children live near O’Connor House and residents walk by every day and they have no problems whatsoever.

This was not detox, it was a halfway house for those committed to getting drug free who needed support.