10 Reasons to vote for Peter Moran
for Shellharbour Council.
1) I know how Council works. I have attended nearly every Council meeting over the last 10 years. This is more than any other candidate, even those who used to be Councillors.
Not one of the ALP or Liberal candidates have attended more than a couple of meetings since the Administrator was appointed over three years ago. Many have attended no meetings.
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2) I have been involved in Council through the writing of submissions. In the last three years I have, on a number of occasions, had my suggestions adopted by the Administrator and incorporated into Council policies. After I spoke at a Council meeting recently (31 May, 2011) the Administrator said “…..the matters raised by Mr Moran were, as one would expect, legitimate concerns."
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3) I care about how my community works. That is why my wife and I wrote a submission to the recent Council budget, as we have done in years past. Among other things, I called for the abolition of cold water pool fees. NO OTHER CANDIDATE CARED ENOUGH ABOUT POOL FEES, OR ANY OTHER COUNCIL BUSINESS, TO WRITE A SUBMISSION. I make numerous written and verbal submissions to Council each year on issues that affect our community. Most of the other candidates only take an interest when elections roll around.
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4) I ask questions. The only reason the community knows about the $176,000 legal fees and the $1.3 million “unliquidated damages” attached to the recent write-off of over $400,000 in relation to the Links golf course is because I questioned Council staff. Council was not going to tell the community about these costs otherwise.
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5) I have been responsible for saving Council time and money through attention to detail. At a Council meeting on March 30, 2010 I pointed out a mistake by Council staff where a land swap was going to take place with the wrong piece of land being swapped. The Mercury reported this as an “embarrassing backdown” for council.
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6) I am prepared to put my money where my mouth is. In 2003 I spent over $17,000 of my own money taking Council to the Land and Environment Court to force them to take decisions in accordance with the Local Government Act. Council (including then Mayor Joan Vinton as well as other current candidates Briggs, Murray and Cicolini) had improperly taken several decisions relating to the sale of public land in confidential session. I forced Council to obey the Act and do things in an open and transparent fashion.
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7) My team includes Sue Moran (my wife) who has been responsible for the release of the Shell Cove Management Agreement and other documents relating to this troubled project. Previous councillors had been unwilling or unable to have this document released. Sue took on Council using Freedom of Information and the Administrative Decisions Tribunal and had information released. After 12 years of being told these documents were secret ratepayers now can see what we signed up for and why this project is in such financial trouble. Sue has succeeded where others, including previous councillors, have failed.
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8) Other members of my team include a retired magistrate and a JP. These are highly regarded local people who know how proper processes are supposed to work.
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9) I have a plan to provide jobs in the area. The Shell Cove project includes a business park expected to provide 1000 permanent full-time job. Under the current plan these jobs will not come until 2018 at the earliest. Even that date depends on Council borrowing many millions to construct the marina first. I believe Council should use project funds to build the Business Park now. We should seek Federal Government support to hook this Park into the National Broadband Network which is on line just 4 km down the road at Minnamurra. We can wait at least 7 years for a marina that may never be built and use that to support jobs, or we can build the first NBN-connected Business Park near a major population centre in NSW and attract those jobs now. Most other candidates think those jobs should wait.
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10) I do not believe in Party politics in local government. I am a member of the Greens but I am standing as an Independent, accepting no money or support from the Greens. If elected I would be answerable only to the community, not the Greens. I have fought for the local community’s interests for over 10 years – long before I joined the Greens. If elected I would continue to fight for the local community. Others, including the Liberal Party and the Labor Party, wish to entrench Party politics in your council.
