As one of the few women running near the top of a ticket at the Wagga local government election, Karen Butts says she put her hand up to stand because she wants a better gender balance on the council.
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Ms Butts is second on the ballot for the politically independent Group E, known as "Getting It Done", for the Wagga City Council local government election on December 4.
One of her major aims is to get more people from a wider range of age groups and physical abilities, as well as from LGBTIQA+ and Indigenous backgrounds, involved in council.
"There is a need for more women on council," she said.
"If you look at the ballot, there are only two groups that have women as their lead candidates and a majority of people vote above the line," she said.
"In the council balance, there is no gender equity there. Right now on council it is 25 per cent women and that is not reflective of the population."
Ms Butts said a council that was more reflective of the community it represents would allow different ideas and views to be put forward.
"It would mean a more inclusive council," she said.
Ms Butts, aged 51, is a full-time student at Charles Sturt University studying for a social work degree.
She said she had three main issues to pursue if she was elected to council.
"In the council balance, there is no gender equity there. Right now on council it is 25 per cent women and that is not reflective of the population."
- 'Getting It Done' council candidate Karen Butts
"The first one is to looking at the state of our roads," she said.
"I have heard a lot of people saying the council doesn't have any money to fix the roads but if you look actually at what is being spent on fixing these potholes, maybe they could look at a different way of doing it and finding the resources by fixing it once and fixing it properly."
Ms Butts said her second issue was guaranteeing practical and efficient city services that meet the community's needs, such as "shade sails over playgrounds and sustainable water recreation areas".
"I think front and centre of a lot of people's minds is Lake Albert and the Riverside project," she said.
"If I was on council or our group got on council, we would push those along and put things that might not have been up on the list, further up on the list, so we can get things done in a timely manner rather than them blowing out for years and years."
Ms Butts said the third issue was "the need for diversity on our council that reflects the community demographics so they get a say in what goes on in our community".
"People from different ethnic ... and LGBTIQA+ [backgrounds] are large demographics that are not addressed in our council and it's a very important part of the community," she said.
"There's not a huge variety of age groups on the council at the moment [and] people who have disabilities bring a different perspective."
In the lead up to this year's election, The Daily Advertiser has profiled the candidates looking to secure a spot on Wagga City Council.
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