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

John Fergusson, who is standing as a Mayoral candidate in the Shoalhaven Council elections with the support of the Shoalhaven Action Campaign, has outlined the approach he would take as Mayor.

“It’s quite simple. Council must follow the rules – the rules laid down by the Local Government Act and the rules laid down in Council’s own policies.

“All too often we see the Minister for Local Government intervening because Council is breaching the Act. This seriously undermines Council’s leadership role and sets a poor example. It’s  bad for the citizens and bad for potential investors in the City,” Mr Fergusson said.

“Council also have a poor record in following its own policies. Ad-hoc decision making and continual variation to policy do not provide any certainty.  Council, generally, has good policies which need to be reviewed at regular intervals, such as every 5 years. They do not need to be undermined on a monthly basis.

“Should I be elected as Mayor I would ensure that Elected Council act like a board of directors and provide proper governance. There would be no interference in the day-to-day activities of professional staff as has been the case with the current Council. We will see a return to a Council that all can be proud of and I would support a forum for citizens to provide a regular review of Council’s performance.

SAC mayoral candidate, John Fergusson (3rd from left), has joined with 70% of mayoral candidates calling for Shoalhaven electors to reject Greg Watson and the Shoalhaven Independents Group at the coming election.

Read more

Click to see:

• Ward 1 candidates
• Ward 2 candidates
• Ward 3 candidates

This paper contains a great deal of information about the upcoming Council election. The Mayor doesn’t like it.

Click here and see what you think. Ask yourself what the Mayor doesn’t like.

And tell others about this.

“With the ABS figures for 2006 showing average unemployment in NSW at 5.9%
and the Shoalhaven at 9.2%, the highest on the South Coast, together with
one of the lowest average incomes in NSW clearly demonstrates a failure of
policy by Mayor Greg Watson and his Group. They have failed the Shoalhaven
community”.

“Property development does not of itself create sustainable job growth.
Council’s own information paper for its Growth Management Strategy says that
‘Jobs in tourism and construction are generally seasonal, part-time, subject
to market fluctuation and relatively poor paid.’ Council should be not
distracted by questionable high rise development deals. It should be
concentrating on encouraging long term wealth creating industry and jobs
that will flow through into the local economy and lead to activity in the
local commercial and residential construction industry”.

“Examples of this type of industry should include a focus on ensuring that
the Aviation Technology Park at Albatross is further developed and  obtains
its share of the long term deep maintenance of the new Navy and Army
helicopter fleets. This is a once in a generation opportunity and no effort
should be spared to secure a good outcome for the Shoalhaven” John Fergusson
said.

“Another opportunity is the potential for Aquaculture. It is non existent in
the Shoalhaven and with our relatively good supply of water it is an
industry of the future. With close proximity to major markets of Sydney and
Canberra this seems like a logical direction for us to take. This is a
policy direction that I will take to Council if elected on the 13th
September” said John Fergusson.

* Figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics show that in the 2006
census the average NSW unemployment rate was 5.9%. In the Shoalhaven it was
9.2% (the highest on the South Coast). In the 2001 census average NSW
unemployment was 7.2% and in the Shoalhaven 11.1%.

Pat Mason may be one of the oldest candidates in Ward One, but she is the latest to star in her own YouTube video.

Pat and her Ward One team have become the latest candidates in the local government elections to embrace internet technology. Using location shots from Bomaderry Creek Bushland, Pat Mason and Barry Horton discuss their plans for the North Nowra Link Road.

“Rather than supporting the Council’s preferred option of a road through Bomaderry bushland, which won’t solve the problem, a sensible solution is needed,” said Barry. “And that solution is to use the land corridor identified by the RTA for a future Nowra by-pass. This can create a link road in the short term and in the longer term form part of a staged approach to the much needed by-pass and third river crossing.”

“It’s a shame that this technology wasn’t available for my last campaign,” said Pat. “I walked miles door knocking and letterboxing to get this level of detail about my policies to the electorate. Whilst I’m still out campaigning, it’s important that we use all available technology. YouTube provides our team with a chance to get our message out there and hopefully engage a younger audience than we traditionally have.”

Pat’s video can be found here

I am standing for Council election in September as an Independent candidate for Councillor in Ward 2 with the support of the Shoalhaven Action Campaign.

Local government is about about making decisions that affect residents and ratepayers and our local communities. It is really important that we have genuine community representatives on Council. It is vital that people of integrity and sincerity, who are determined to bring community views into Council, continue to have a seat there. I am repeatedly astonished by the ‘we know best’ attitude of many of my fellow Councillors. They seem to believe that their role is to make ‘expert’ decisions on behalf of their constituents, not to listen to what the community says and act accordingly. I am concerned that the decisions being made by our Councillors are not in the community’s best interest.

For the last 4 and and a half years I have been a Greens Party Councillor. With this experience behind me I now do not believe that party politics should play any part in local Council. I decided earlier this year that if I stood again it would be as an Independent, not as a member of a party.

Local Council is about local people and communities and their representation in making decisions that affect them individually or collectively. The challenge before us is to ensure that all the different sectors have a voice and are represented fairly on Shoalhaven City Council. I fundamentally believe that all sectors of our community, be they environmentalists or developers, ratepayers or residents must be represented in the decision making.

As a Councillor I have been in a minority situation. I have sometimes achieved a degree of moderation in Council’s decisions and have always tried to reflect the views of the local community. I have played a significant role in getting the issue of developer donations into the public arena.

I would like to see a new approach on our next Council, one that brings good governance, transparency to decision making and genuine community participation. I believe the Shoalhaven Action Campaign candidates can make a major contribution to this.