INTRODUCTION: I'm Jess Jennings, lead candidate of Better Bathurst - Group H above the line. I've run my own consulting company in Australian agriculture for over 20 years, have experience in hospitality in Sydney CBD and am now developing a new museum for Bathurst known as the Australian Milling Museum. I'm running a ticket to get a more professional mix of councillors in Council. Change is desperately needed.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Mrs Jennifer Gray is my #2 candidate and has over 35 years owning and operating small businesses - skills and experience this Council seriously needs, including 16 years in Bathurst. Jennifer is dedicated Water Security because without water we have no local economy.
Jacqui Rudge, incumbent Councillor, is #3 on my ticket because she has much, much more to give on Council - but realistically, Jacqui only wants to serve another term if Council seriously improves its professionalism with a change of guard via the ballot box. Jacqui is across all Council issues and actively advocates for mental health awareness, reviving forgotten parks around town, quality town planning and heritage, public art and listening to what the community wants. In my opinion, Jacqui Rudge is a champion of her community who deserved better treatment in her first term but it's fair to say she now 'knows the ropes' better than most and is a true champion for Bathurst.
Angus Thompson (#4 candidate) is already a local legend as a professional TV presenter, actor and writer for ABC Television and SBS who also lives with (and beats) his condition of Cerebral Palsy on a daily basis. Check out his current TV foray called 'Terrible Pauly' on ABC iView which is smashing the stigma of disability in a big way, and his personal consumer product reviews of the Robovac, Stain Proof Paint, and Electric Toothbrush are spot on. Angus is keen to see accessibility improved across Bathurst.
Kate Smith is a professional writer/performer and Arts Out West employee focusing on arts and health in regional communities, especially aged care. Raised in Ego and Kelso, Kate graduated from Kelso High, has a PhD from CSU in Australian Theatre, teaches Yoga (for over a decade now), has taken to the BMEC stage literally dozens of times doing Cabaret Kite, musicals, stand-up comedy, and last week scored a national 5-star review on stage with local legends Smith & Jones in BMEC's showing of Highway of Lost Hearts. Kate is a Bathurst 'Living Legend' and knows the Arts sector inside and out - knowledge that is sorely lacking on Bathurst Council.
PRIORITIES:
INVEST BATHURST is our key policy to develop an investment prospectus for the major defunct sites of Bathurst: Gasworks, Old TAFE, Old Ambulance, Schoolmaster's House amongst others. The INVEST BATHURST prospectus must be pitched to national and global private equity because they won't come to us when they don't even know we exist. These sites must be brought back to life, and I can't see Council doing it alone, therefore Bathurst Council needs to become pro-active and reach out.
WATER BATHURST is our policy to deliver the short, medium and long-term solutions needed. Short-term requires: complete the existing stormwater harvesting project and sort out our Wynburndale Dam access rights. Medium-term requires: water recycling which can deliver approximately 30% net new water, and support more home water tanks and better Water Use Efficiency (WUE). Long-term requires: the pipeline from Chifley Dam to the water treatment plant to stop major evaporation and leakage losses. Irrigated agriculture can and must be protected. Also, I note the idea of raising the dam wall is a total fantasy - unless some has a lazy $400million+ lying about?
ACCESS & LOVE BATHURST - accessibility is a must these days and Angus Thompson is living proof of how much better life is with better access, but we can do better and it's also a great tourism driver. We all want to love our home, and while Bathurst offers much it still has massive potential, like growing our city as cultural hub of regional Australia that boasts - arguably - the most museums in the world per capita (please someone try to prove me wrong!). Across Bathurst Council region we currently have 20 galleries/museums on offer (private and public, some seasonal), which is about one venue for every 2,200 people - where else in the world can beat that? We can and must become a greater cultural centre that doesn't simply import art and artists, but rather creates, nurtures and produces a culture of creativity that contributes to the world. For example, the last BMEC show Highway of Lost Hearts received a national 5-star review with my candidate Kate Smith as the lead actor, joined by Smith & Jones, and directed by Adam Deusian - all locally grown, CSU trained who are now brilliant talents cutting it at the national and international levels.
BIMC: I want to see the full BIMC Development Application which is yet to be completed, presented to Council or submitted to the NSW Govt to decide upon. I want the applicants to have every chance to show Bathurst what they are proposing, down to the last detail. All developments have pros and cons - and CBD traffic congestion and the likely height are concerning, but these must be weighed against the benefits of much needed health care (even if is predominantly private health for those who can pay, not public for those who can't). The decision to proceed or not is entirely in the hands of the NSW State Govt but realistically I can't imagine they will knock back $70 million of new health investment that will effectively delay the need for a new Bathurst Hospital which government should be providing now. If that's the case, then the future BIMC must make the structure as sympathetic as possible to Bathurst's iconic architecture and heritage culture. Making the BIMC it a 'Living Building' covered in plants is excellent for patient recovery and could make the building an instant classic rather than a giant-sized eye saw.
WATER SECURITY: See our WATER BATHURST policy (above), but note the NSW Govt must also be lobbied with adjoining Councils to devise a NSW-wide water security plan for all regional NSW and agriculture, especially west of the range, for the rest of this century. This strategy must include planning for the science-based climate predictions which are dire, eg by 2050 climatic winter as we know it is set to disappear completely, while summer conditions are set to double to 6-months of the average year, and peak summer is to get seriously hotter. These climate predictions need a new major water security strategy that identifies which towns can survive best together and how, but post-drought I'm yet to see the NSW Govt doing much and Bathurst is currently missing out on the major spends to the west and north.
RIVER CROSSING: Yes. So far, Council's best available traffic and housing data suggest the most likely/best crossing point would be an extension of Peel Street to the north, but more engineering and research will need to be crunched to get the best fit for dollars spent. I make my decisions based on facts and expert advice, which is yet to be formed in detail on this project.
AMBULANCE BATHURST: See our INVEST BATHURST policy above about funding defunct heritage assets like the former ambulance station, but the uses must include a good component of community use (one-third minimum), as well as local business opportunities be they retail, hospitality, studios, IT, teaching, museum/gallery, commercial offices or even an element of CBD residential. A well-balanced split should create commercial leases that cover Council's cost of maintaining the building over the long-term, so it costs ratepayers nothing to run but the community and economy benefit.
GO-KART TRACK: As a site, the drive-in could work, but in fact it has already been declared "uneconomic" by Council's Director of Engineering in a public Council meeting some months back. It's going to be hugely expensive to properly stop noise to Rydges plus it will degrade the property value of surrounding land that would have greater economic value without kart noise. I'd only support the drive-in site if the cost did not blow massively out - again. Federal and state sporting grants should fund at least 80% of the final kart project budget. Not long ago this Council deliberately wasted Bathurst ratepayers' money by racking up on Council's credit card a debt of $2.25 million via the irresponsible loan that was wrongly forced onto ratepayers. Myself and 3 other councillors vehemently voted against this misuse of ratepayers money - only to find out later this loan took Council right up to is first tier borrowing limit! Professional and prudential financial management must be restored in our Chamber, because ratepayers money does not grow on trees and should never be treated like Monopoly money to throw at mates.
The best site for the karts remains within the proposed Second Circuit, and it should be commenced ASAP by drawing down on the $25 million of grant money that Council has already won! This grant money is now at serious risk of having to be given back because Mount Panorama / Whaluu has been chronically mismanaged on many fronts over the last Council term, but it could all be relatively easily resolved for the better.
RATES CAP: Not at this stage, first much greater effort needs to go into strategic lobbying and accessing external funds from federal and state government, as well as private equity where feasible.
BUSINESS COMMUNITY: Bathurst needs to reform its business and tourism sector by creating an independent professional board structure like Brand Orange (known as Orange 360 nowadays) but for our profile. This new entity will professionally market Bathurst to the world and must be supported but not dominated by Bathurst Council with the majority stakeholders coming from private tourism operators and Bathurst's business community. Delivering 'Destination Bathurst' to the world is something that every local business will benefit from and has an interest in supporting, with the existing Bathurst Business Chamber being strongly involved in its development and growth.
WOMEN'S VOICE: I have three women on my ticket and seriously hope they get in to help balance up the current gender divide. The new Council must change rapidly from the culture of the past 4 years (just ask Cr Rudge) to become a genuinely professional outfit ASAP. This must be led by a competent mayor to include every aspect of Council business, from meeting procedure to policy debate to engaging with community and external stakeholders and Council partners. Providing a modern, professional culture that values diversity will significantly improve (equalise) the opportunity women have to make great contributions to our community.
COUNCIL DIVISIONS: The solutions to this Council's serious problems are simple: be professional and be decent. It's not that hard when you focus on the policy.
Make debate about ideas, not personalities and always play the ball not the person in all areas of Council business including social media. Council must once again become a contest of ideas because our reputation as a professional council really matters both to our own integrity as well as how the world sees us.
FUNDING: Nil - 100% self-funded.