The election dust has settled…

Firstly, I am humbled by the enormous amount of support I have received as a first-time candidate and I thank everyone who voted for me. I congratulate the new faces that made it onto council. 

Although I didn’t make it quite over the line, I have been inspired by the people I’ve met throughout this campaign and their passion for Noosa. I am committed to work for the greater good of the Noosa community in other roles as I have come to understand, there is much to be addressed.

One of the big issues I addressed as a candidate was the dumbing down of the town planning debate to ‘those for’ vs ‘those against’.  

Whilst the majority of Noosa locals want to keep ‘Noosa Special’, what that actually means is often unclear nor is it on the ‘care factor radar’ of most residents.  

Many of the candidates used the old rallying call of ‘protecting the plan’ and gave Noosa residents very little to vote on.

While I personally support the majority of the new town plan and congratulate the previous council in its efforts for keeping Noosa Shire unique, the political football they made of this was extremely disappointing.  

The fact that so much of the new council campaign was dominated by the New Noosa Plan, the divisive language particularly, the accusations that anyone who disagreed with any aspect of the new Noosa Plan was for wholesale redevelopment and destruction of Noosa as we know it, has been the biggest injustice for Noosa Shire.

Because the only point that I and other candidates stated disagreement with is the treatment of houses for short-term accommodation.  

The regulation around short term accommodation was poorly conceived and rushed through at the last minute. And ultimately was rejected by the state government. 

It won’t work in achieving its objectives and I believe it will have significant negative impacts on our community, would expose the council to significant legal action and create even more discord in an already divided community. 

But there is so much more that this campaign should have encompassed in the meet the candidates and social media conversations, that was missing.

Affordable Housing was given empty lip service. 

Where were the discussions about homelessness?  

Where was the collective voice for representation of women?  

Even reasonable discussions on environmental policy going forward were relegated to a ‘meet the candidates’ event that never happened and a questionnaire by ZEN.

The previous council did a lot of backslapping on their environmental achievements, though we didn’t hear very much about how well they performed for community health.  

And yet, in this day and age, community health is precisely what local government should be most concerned with. Community health encompasses the environment as well as footpaths, roads, bus shelters, and traffic snarls, along with homeless and women’s shelters, support for community engagement officers, businesses that employ locals, youth crime and issues of drug abuse.

Whilst violence against women is one of our most pressing social issues currently, the incumbents focused on the New Noosa Plan. 

In Noosa we have the intellect, we have the creativity, we have the passion, and we have the environment to be leaders in local government response to community needs as well as the environmental ones.  

Noosa was a leader in the past, why have we let this slip?  

I believe part of the blame lies in letting a male-dominated mindset take control of the campaign.  They made it a fight, they created ‘sides’ and they stacked their ‘side’.

And then triumphantly and against the betting odds, Noosa Shire elected a new mayor, Noosa Shire’s first female mayor and two new women councillors.  

This was a direct rebuke to the incumbent Mayor, and a show of dissatisfaction of the community with regard to the old council’s boys club culture. 

And yet in stark contrast to that triumph, Noosa Shire has also re-elected a man who served on the previous council who made life for the only female councillor quite unpleasant.  

This councillor was formally reprimanded by the mayor when a complaint was held up about inappropriate conduct in breach of the Councillor Code of Conduct by engaging in personal criticisms of a fellow Councillor. 

He then filed a series of formal complaints against that same councillor, none of which were upheld by an independent assessor. 

The system already fails the electorate when someone with that track record could even run again. But run again he did and with a campaign of misinformation about other candidates having a development agenda and ‘protect the New Noosa Plan’. Noosa Shire voted him in.

So personally, I may have just missed out on a seat on council, but I will not remain inconspicuous or silent anymore.  

I’ll attend or watch the public council meetings and I will shed light on any bullying or misogyny if it rears its ugly head again. 

I will stand up for gender equality to stay embedded in Noosa Council, now and in the future, and I invite the many amazing women that live here to join me in that quest.  

Let’s make sure Noosa Shire is never again run by the old white male paradigm of ‘divide and conquer’. Let’s instead unite in new ways to raise our response to the enormous challenges we’re facing – together – with women leading the way.