General News
20 November, 2024
PERSPECTIVE What’s the art of selling message?
By CHRIS EARL THE WORLD has been gripped by election fever the last week - there was something happening in the United States that temporarily took focus away from the big event in our local communities. At almost the same time as Americans were...
By CHRIS EARL
THE WORLD has been gripped by election fever the last week - there was something happening in the United States that temporarily took focus away from the big event in our local communities.
At almost the same time as Americans were waking to confirmation that Donald Trump had become only the second person to return to the White House after losing four years earlier, Loddon Shire residents in Inglewood and Tarnagulla Wards were about the receive news on who would be their councillors on Loddon Shire for the next four years.
The Americans - more than 145 million of them - waited only 24 or so hours. In Loddon Shire, the 2000 voters were left hanging for almost a fortnight.
Analysts in the US say Trump’s victory was on the back of discontent in rural America. Is there a parallel with Loddon results and possible implications for the next federal election due before next May and a State Government already suffering one of the worst cases of mid-term blues seen in more than a generation?
Possibly? Successful local council candidates were pretty grassroots in their approach to campaigning and issues. The basics - looking after roads - was high on the list of needs and wants for voters, too.
The successful pair of Miki Wilson and Nick Angelo didn’t stray into policy agenda areas where local government has little impact, importance or influence.
And their campaigns were out on the roads beside paddocks talking to farmers or having a chat and a cuppa. They didn’t go much for social media posts that gained little traction with local voters, although they were popular with fan clubs in other parts of the state.
That two first-term councillors were challenged and defeated is rare at any level of government and even rarer in the 30-year history of the Loddon Shire.
Wendy Murphy and Linda Jung-wirth showed a passion and compassion for their communities, something that cannot be questioned. Any one who is elected to public office, service with scrutiny and questions, must always be thanked.
A defining moment in the election campaign, I believe, came weeks before the official caretaker period of council when then-councillors Murphy and Jungwirth abstained on a vote continue support of the Murray River Group of Councils in its opposition to Federal Government water buybacks.
That was despite a thorough and in-depth report written by shire chief executive officer Lincoln Fitzgerald. Under the Local Government Act, abstaining from making a decision is a “no” vote.
That indication of voting in the negative unleashed criticism from readers in rural communities, aware that almost 80 per cent of the shire’s economic worth is produced through agriculture and access to irrigation water a vital part of preserving that economic contribution. Among letter writers to the Loddon Herald was Miki Wilson, the farmer’s wife and former local government governance manager. The absence of support to oppose water buybacks was her trigger to stand for election. For the next four years, she is now a councillor.
The two new councillors, indeed the shire as a whole, has exciting times ahead and challenges too. CEO Fitzgerald, father of the council Gavan Holt and former mayor Dan Straub said that quite plainly last week at the poll declaration.
The two wards - Inglewood and Tarnagulla - that had an election have also been dragging down the shire’s resident satisfaction surveys over the past four years.
Despite good work by council and even if frustrated by bureaucracy at higher levels of government and delays in approving funding, there are good things being achieved by a council punching above its weight and making sure local communities can maximise economic and population growth.
Those good messages are not sold on social media where posts are there one minute, relegated the next.
They are sold out in our communities, on the ground where people are really connected. Making sure the basics are right and leaving social engineering to higher levels of government who have their own elections to face in the near future.