A forum to meet the candidates standing for this December’s council election is being held at Yass Golf Club on Wednesday, November 10 at 7:30pm.
Hosted by the Rotary Club of Yass the event will consist of candidates speaking for a handful of minutes each and a session at the end where the public can pose questions to the candidates.
Rotary and Yass Rostrum Club board member, Alfred McCarthy, said it’s the first time Rotary has run the meet the candidates’ forum, which was previously run by the Rostrum Club.
“I’m always curious about the elections because I think it’s fascinating trying to pick them,” Alfred said.
“I’m looking forward to a successful forum and I’m hoping that we get a good response from the candidates,” he said. “In past years we had something like 20 out of 25 [candidates].”
The idea is to introduce the candidates and have them speak for two or three minutes depending on how many are there Alfred said.
This will be followed by question time when members of the public can ask questions of candidates or of the group as a whole.
After the meeting closes there will be an opportunity for members of the public to talk to specific candidates personally.
Alfred has been personally involved with the forum for many years through Rostrum, an organisation that promotes public speaking and chairmanship. The club has unfortunately experienced a decline in membership in recent years and due to COVID-19 has ceased to meet for now.
The Yass Business Chamber asked the Rotary Club to host the forum this election as an impartial party.
Rostrum began conducting the meet the candidates’ forum some 20 years ago when they decided to promote public speaking with councillors.
At the time of writing, the NSW Elections website had a number of candidates nominated. The time left to nominate to be a candidate or form a group ticket closes at midday on Wednesday, November 3.
A group ticket of greens candidates will contest this year’s election which was moved to December 4 due to issues around Covid that could not be dealt with regarding elections, initially set to be held in September.
The Greens ticket includes Adrain Cameron, Saan Ecker, Iain Fyfe, Tanya Cullen and Steven Crabb.
Individuals who have been processed and have also appeared on the site at the time of writing include, Cayla Pothan, Kim Turner, Harvey Walsh, Ryan Deale, Jim Abbey, Cecil Burgess and Allan McGrath.
The only current sitting Councillors currently appearing are Kim Turner, Cecil Burgess and Allan McGrath which brings the individual candidate total to seven.
However, this is expected to expand over the coming days with the Times understanding there may be a few more candidates yet to start the nomination process, which can be arduous.
Editor of the Times, Matthew Stadtmiller was a Councillor at Harden before the Baird government disbanded some Councils and forced mergers.
He then went on to become a Hilltops Councillor and will likely run at the next election in the neighbouring Council area seeking a third consecutive term.
Hilltops share a boundary near Mt. Bobbara close to Binalong with the Yass Valley Council. He hopes that more can be done to between the 2 Councils to attract people to the areas.
“The process is quite time consuming and repetitive,” he said. “No less than three times will candidates have to put their name, age and contact details in the form. It’s a bit clunky.”
“They have tried to modernise the payment processing fee which appears like it can be done online instead of going into a Council’s front office, however, it takes time and would be confronting to new candidates.”
Councillor Stadtmiller said that being involved with Council is useful and allows for a better understanding when it comes to writing about them at a newspaper level.
“You know where to go and you know how to get the job done,” he said.
“Being a Councillor opens you up to dealing with state and federal politicians and it gives you a good barometer when elected individuals spend public money.”
“A lot of money is spent on consultants in local government and this is usually put down to resources available at the time.”
The Times welcomes the democratic process and wishes all of the candidates all the best.
We offer advertising packages for the upcoming elections which include both print and online. Each candidate will be required to pay the full rate so that it is a fair and level playing field.
Candidates can contact Nyssa Stadtmiller on 0413 763 216 or email editor@yassvalleytimes.com.au to discuss their needs.
By Brianna O’Rourke
