Shoalhaven Action Campaign

Hi folks
Never doubt that a small group of committed people can change the world,
Indeed it’s the only thing that ever has

>From the time SAC formed in May 2007 there was one clear goal – to change the Council and ensure that the dominant group of Councillors, the Shoalhaven Independents Group (SIG), led by Greg Watson, lost that dominance.
This has been well and truly achieved. The SIG numbers will be way down on last Council.

Earlier this year when SAC decided to support independent candidates for the election we set ourselves a target of having one Councillor elected in each of the three wards of Shoalhaven. Final vote counting and distribution of preferences is not likely before early next week, but it looks like John Fergusson (ward 2) and Robert Miller (ward 3) will be elected as Councillors. Patricia Mason is still in there with a chance of being elected in ward 1.

John Fergusson received a very credible 15% of the vote for Mayor, behind new Mayor Paul Green with 31% and former Mayor Greg Watson with 25%. Consider that before the beginning of August John had little profile beyond his home area of Vincentia/ Huskisson and this is even more commendable. Add to that the fact that he continued working in his business during this time and it becomes quite remarkable.

There seems little doubt that many of the other Councillors who have been elected to Council have benefited from the committed hard work of SAC in raising issues of poor practice and total disregard for community concerns among the previous Council. Good luck to them. With the decimation of the SIGs we look forward to our Councillors working effectively with other decent Councillors, and the entire community, for a brighter and fairer Shoalhaven. This is the end of Council led division of the community.

Some of YOUR achievements

• in the weeks before the election SAC brochures and How-To-Vote information was letterboxed throughout the entire Shoalhaven. The vast majority of this was done by volunteers – which saved a heap of money and kept our information separate from main junk mail deliveries
• SAC supporters responded magnificently to the invitation to help fund an advertising campaign. We received amounts from $10 to a $1,000 and were able to put together a very useful newspaper, radio and TV ad campaign in the last few days before the election
• on the Thursday before the election one of the other candidates letterboxed misinformation about SAC candidates position on policing in the Bay and Basin area throughout the Bay and Basin area. Dirty politics pure and simple. SAC prepared a written response late on Thursday night, printing of 3,500 notices stating our true position commenced at 4.30am on Friday, and almost the entire Bay and Basin area was letterboxed by our supporters during Friday. An outstanding response at such short notice which left the people responsible for spreading this misinformation stunned
• something around 200 people volunteered their help at polling booths on Saturday. Many of these volunteers wore SAC Tshirts which helped raise our profile at the booths. Many people commented on how good they looked. One of our volunteers reported a conversation at a polling booth with volunteers for the (former) Mayor’s group, the SIGs, when they had their lunches and cool drinks dropped off to them. The SIG volunteers couldn’t believe  that SAC people took their own lunch and paid for their own Tshirt
• perhaps most importantly, the sense of helplessness and inability to get a change in Council is gone. People need no longer feel they can’t have influence over their Council. People need no longer feel that by speaking out they will be targeted in some way or have trouble with any dealings with Council in the future. Decency is here. People have become more engaged with Council than in the past. It’s been very gratifying  to hear people say how much they have enjoyed being involved in something worthwhile, how many other people they have met and formed friendships with and how much more they understand the workings of and importance of local government. The challenge for SAC is to maintain and build on this
  

And remember also, until May last year SAC didn’t exist.

The immediate future

• The SAC committee will be debriefing and inviting feedback on the campaign from anyone and everyone who was involved. It is crucial that we learn from our experience
• We will also be considering the future role of SAC. Your contribution to this will be very highly valued
• The first meeting of the new Council is Tuesday 30 September – make note of this and try and make it to show support for the SAC Councillors. Get your Tshirt out
  

Couple of house keepers:

• if you have A Frames or signs from last Saturday please arrange to have them returned to the SAC committee ASAP please. Reply to this email if uncertain how to do that
• The SAC phone line will be disconnected in the next day or so. Contact will be through internet. Details of SAC direct contacts will also be provided in the near future
  

Finally … many, many thanks and well done. We made a difference

Graeme