1
00:00:00,240 --> 00:00:03,760
Speaker 1: Right now, we are going to continue our discussions with

2
00:00:03,840 --> 00:00:08,200
Speaker 1: some of the mayoral candidates for various locations around the

3
00:00:08,240 --> 00:00:12,160
Speaker 1: Northern territory. And up next, well Catherine, We're heading back

4
00:00:12,360 --> 00:00:15,520
Speaker 1: to Catherine and catching up with one of our candidates,

5
00:00:15,520 --> 00:00:18,279
Speaker 1: Wayne Connor. Good morning to your Wayne.

6
00:00:19,040 --> 00:00:20,919
Speaker 2: Oh hi Katie, how are you? Yeah?

7
00:00:21,000 --> 00:00:23,439
Speaker 1: Really good? Great to have you on the show. And Wayne,

8
00:00:23,440 --> 00:00:26,800
Speaker 1: Now we've got a number of questions and six minutes

9
00:00:26,840 --> 00:00:31,160
Speaker 1: to get through them. Are you ready, red red Rooster,

10
00:00:31,480 --> 00:00:31,880
Speaker 1: Let's go.

11
00:00:33,800 --> 00:00:34,360
Speaker 2: All right?

12
00:00:34,920 --> 00:00:37,680
Speaker 1: Wayne? Why have you decided to put your hand up

13
00:00:37,720 --> 00:00:40,400
Speaker 1: to be the next mayor of Catherine.

14
00:00:40,760 --> 00:00:42,880
Speaker 2: Well, I was born and bred here and I've got

15
00:00:43,000 --> 00:00:46,440
Speaker 2: you know, my wife, and I've got four children and grandchildren.

16
00:00:47,400 --> 00:00:50,440
Speaker 2: Long term territorium. I suppose you know I'm related to

17
00:00:50,479 --> 00:00:53,279
Speaker 2: the Peckham family and we're a pretty big family right

18
00:00:53,320 --> 00:00:56,800
Speaker 2: across the territory. I have a really big vision for

19
00:00:57,160 --> 00:00:59,800
Speaker 2: Catherine as a mayor to concentrate on the community and

20
00:01:00,040 --> 00:01:04,120
Speaker 2: buy better local government services for our community. I might

21
00:01:04,160 --> 00:01:06,679
Speaker 2: have a really big interest in and heart and design

22
00:01:06,800 --> 00:01:11,600
Speaker 2: working for the people on roads, for rates, garbage collections, footpaths,

23
00:01:11,640 --> 00:01:17,200
Speaker 2: access community and culture in the arts. Because Catherine's got

24
00:01:17,200 --> 00:01:19,280
Speaker 2: a lot of really exciting things here, but it needs

25
00:01:19,280 --> 00:01:23,120
Speaker 2: a bit more in terms of infrastructure. It also needs

26
00:01:23,160 --> 00:01:28,039
Speaker 2: a lot of strong leadership, Like we don't have aspirational

27
00:01:28,120 --> 00:01:30,840
Speaker 2: views about strong leadership in this town. And I've been

28
00:01:30,880 --> 00:01:33,400
Speaker 2: back in only four years, living back on the country,

29
00:01:33,440 --> 00:01:37,160
Speaker 2: and I'm an indigenous fellow, but I've also got a

30
00:01:37,160 --> 00:01:38,920
Speaker 2: bit of Chinese blood and me and a bit of

31
00:01:39,080 --> 00:01:43,880
Speaker 2: white fillar in me. And i adore the territory's history

32
00:01:43,880 --> 00:01:47,960
Speaker 2: because my great grandfather was the phizzit that Henry Bendelia

33
00:01:48,040 --> 00:01:50,320
Speaker 2: Peckham in the book called weird than ever and ever.

34
00:01:51,280 --> 00:01:54,320
Speaker 2: So I've come back here to look about providing a

35
00:01:54,360 --> 00:01:58,919
Speaker 2: strong leadership, being an ex tradee and a school teacher

36
00:01:58,920 --> 00:02:02,480
Speaker 2: and a lawyer pactice law for a fair time. And

37
00:02:02,760 --> 00:02:04,960
Speaker 2: back in I got three sons that are lawyers now.

38
00:02:05,000 --> 00:02:06,840
Speaker 2: One of them just went through the Supreme Court the

39
00:02:06,880 --> 00:02:09,959
Speaker 2: other day and got his admission right, So we've got

40
00:02:09,960 --> 00:02:12,760
Speaker 2: to provide strong leadership to do that. Catherine needs a

41
00:02:12,760 --> 00:02:16,160
Speaker 2: bit of a vision and Captain's best outset are the

42
00:02:16,200 --> 00:02:19,720
Speaker 2: people of Cancering themselves. And I think Catherine's continue to

43
00:02:19,720 --> 00:02:21,920
Speaker 2: be a great place to live and work and raise

44
00:02:21,960 --> 00:02:27,079
Speaker 2: the family Catherine visited experience enhancements is sort of past there.

45
00:02:27,120 --> 00:02:30,200
Speaker 2: I'd like to work hard on several key initiatives, name

46
00:02:30,240 --> 00:02:33,640
Speaker 2: that enhancing the visit experience in Cathereron and you know,

47
00:02:33,800 --> 00:02:38,320
Speaker 2: working on generating the foundation of rates, generating revenue for

48
00:02:38,360 --> 00:02:41,040
Speaker 2: Cantontown Council as they do for the most local governments.

49
00:02:42,280 --> 00:02:45,519
Speaker 2: These are the key ess angels for counsels, you know,

50
00:02:45,600 --> 00:02:49,720
Speaker 2: to get their financial sustainability by generating necessary income and

51
00:02:49,760 --> 00:02:52,720
Speaker 2: that sort of helps the meet community needs while balancing

52
00:02:52,760 --> 00:02:54,720
Speaker 2: the social and economic impacts.

53
00:02:56,760 --> 00:03:00,440
Speaker 1: In terms of your experience, I know you touched on

54
00:03:00,520 --> 00:03:02,960
Speaker 1: a little bit there, but in terms of your qualifications

55
00:03:02,960 --> 00:03:06,120
Speaker 1: of work experience, what you know, what do you think

56
00:03:06,160 --> 00:03:08,239
Speaker 1: you can bring to the table to make you best

57
00:03:08,280 --> 00:03:10,000
Speaker 1: placed for the position of mayor.

58
00:03:10,840 --> 00:03:14,600
Speaker 2: Well, I've actually had twenty seven is experience in federal

59
00:03:14,639 --> 00:03:18,079
Speaker 2: and state governments, and I worked as a political advisor,

60
00:03:18,320 --> 00:03:23,800
Speaker 2: you know, touched on working really hard with many great

61
00:03:24,120 --> 00:03:27,760
Speaker 2: politicians in this territory and I've learned a lot from them,

62
00:03:27,800 --> 00:03:32,080
Speaker 2: you know, and my experiences as a lawyer, I've actually

63
00:03:32,160 --> 00:03:34,880
Speaker 2: you know, understand policies a procedure because I went through

64
00:03:35,000 --> 00:03:36,760
Speaker 2: a and U and in an arts law degree and

65
00:03:36,800 --> 00:03:40,920
Speaker 2: majored in public policy and political science. And Council is

66
00:03:40,960 --> 00:03:44,720
Speaker 2: about public policy, I suppose, and it's all about local

67
00:03:44,760 --> 00:03:49,440
Speaker 2: government reforms and local government implementation of the strategic plans.

68
00:03:49,480 --> 00:03:52,200
Speaker 2: And Council has tolled a municipal plan which I've had

69
00:03:52,240 --> 00:03:55,360
Speaker 2: a look at the loss and profit statements. I've looked

70
00:03:55,400 --> 00:03:59,360
Speaker 2: at the strategic Plan and there's a lot of things

71
00:03:59,360 --> 00:04:03,120
Speaker 2: that unimproved capital that is on you know, people's vacant

72
00:04:03,160 --> 00:04:06,800
Speaker 2: blocks of land here, and there's differentials rates that are

73
00:04:06,840 --> 00:04:10,680
Speaker 2: fixed which have a minimum amount and each parcel of

74
00:04:10,760 --> 00:04:14,520
Speaker 2: vailable lands category according to the Northern Turkey Planning Scheme zone.

75
00:04:14,560 --> 00:04:17,520
Speaker 2: And Catherine just had the big flood zone change here

76
00:04:17,560 --> 00:04:20,560
Speaker 2: with a re zone a lot of areas because of

77
00:04:20,600 --> 00:04:24,440
Speaker 2: the flooding. So insurances are very serious thing down here

78
00:04:24,440 --> 00:04:27,880
Speaker 2: with buying houses and stuff like that. We're getting a

79
00:04:27,880 --> 00:04:30,480
Speaker 2: lot of people buying houses that are investors from down

80
00:04:30,560 --> 00:04:35,440
Speaker 2: south here. We got a lot of work to do

81
00:04:35,520 --> 00:04:39,240
Speaker 2: with reviewing rates. I'm aware that Council has said a

82
00:04:39,320 --> 00:04:41,960
Speaker 2: target to collect nine million, nine hundred and fifty seven

83
00:04:42,080 --> 00:04:45,200
Speaker 2: thousand in general rights. You know, they're trying to kick

84
00:04:45,240 --> 00:04:50,360
Speaker 2: the everage general right down for residential properties below four

85
00:04:50,440 --> 00:04:54,080
Speaker 2: point eight percent, and they're increasing by three point six percent,

86
00:04:54,400 --> 00:04:59,560
Speaker 2: which translates to a modest medium increase of sixty dollars cancel.

87
00:05:00,000 --> 00:05:02,320
Speaker 2: It's basically got a lot of things here to do,

88
00:05:02,360 --> 00:05:05,320
Speaker 2: but they need to generate that money because they've got

89
00:05:05,400 --> 00:05:08,440
Speaker 2: nine and a half thousand people living. There is only

90
00:05:08,480 --> 00:05:12,159
Speaker 2: three two hundred rate payers and getting around the electric

91
00:05:12,760 --> 00:05:15,279
Speaker 2: of the speaking to people, you know, the councils actually

92
00:05:15,560 --> 00:05:18,599
Speaker 2: needs to be reviewing their system because there's people that

93
00:05:18,680 --> 00:05:20,960
Speaker 2: have got properties like three and four houses on their

94
00:05:20,960 --> 00:05:23,599
Speaker 2: twenty acre blocks and they've been charged, you know, two

95
00:05:23,600 --> 00:05:26,400
Speaker 2: thousand dollars per building, and I think that's a whole

96
00:05:26,440 --> 00:05:29,520
Speaker 2: way robbery, you know, because it's twenty acres. Yeah, you

97
00:05:29,600 --> 00:05:33,320
Speaker 2: might have three or four buildings. But they need to

98
00:05:33,480 --> 00:05:36,200
Speaker 2: generate that income so they can keep up things like

99
00:05:36,240 --> 00:05:39,039
Speaker 2: the zim and drive pathways. You know, they want to

100
00:05:39,040 --> 00:05:41,400
Speaker 2: put a pathway right around the zim and drives of

101
00:05:41,440 --> 00:05:43,000
Speaker 2: the Layla Wame.

102
00:05:43,480 --> 00:05:46,000
Speaker 1: We've only got about fifty seconds left. I want to

103
00:05:46,040 --> 00:05:49,239
Speaker 1: ask you what are your top commitments to voters.

104
00:05:50,240 --> 00:05:53,000
Speaker 2: My top commitments to get a big rivers into government

105
00:05:53,040 --> 00:05:57,200
Speaker 2: collaboration set up with all the key stakeholders like the

106
00:05:57,279 --> 00:06:00,080
Speaker 2: Land Council, various levels of government to come down and

107
00:06:00,160 --> 00:06:03,240
Speaker 2: to a common ground and talk about the community needs.

108
00:06:03,640 --> 00:06:06,720
Speaker 2: I see collaboration will assist the regions to address challenges

109
00:06:06,760 --> 00:06:10,200
Speaker 2: and strengthen connections between people and our resources that are available.

110
00:06:10,760 --> 00:06:13,360
Speaker 2: I achieve sports and civic centers and things like that,

111
00:06:13,400 --> 00:06:17,920
Speaker 2: and growth and sustainabability and better infrastructure, arts and culture.

112
00:06:18,440 --> 00:06:20,760
Speaker 2: And one of my major goals that's elected as MEAN

113
00:06:20,839 --> 00:06:25,279
Speaker 2: is to reduce our footprints optimized councils, products, services and operation,

114
00:06:25,400 --> 00:06:29,840
Speaker 2: to increase efficiencies and reduce our emissions. I've also looked

115
00:06:29,880 --> 00:06:32,680
Speaker 2: at some of the other areas there where we've got

116
00:06:32,680 --> 00:06:34,640
Speaker 2: a lot of years. In Catherine, we don't have any

117
00:06:34,680 --> 00:06:37,400
Speaker 2: placeful youth to sort of hang out in twenty four hours.

118
00:06:37,440 --> 00:06:42,680
Speaker 2: We don't have overnight stay for homeless people. And Catherine

119
00:06:42,680 --> 00:06:45,159
Speaker 2: needs to have some sort of commendation for when people

120
00:06:45,240 --> 00:06:47,680
Speaker 2: visit English, they've got body buses coming in and out.

121
00:06:48,240 --> 00:06:51,080
Speaker 2: So we need to basically say, you know, these are

122
00:06:51,080 --> 00:06:52,839
Speaker 2: the things that need to be put on the table,

123
00:06:53,360 --> 00:06:56,400
Speaker 2: but also we'll work it within the local government laws

124
00:06:56,560 --> 00:06:59,480
Speaker 2: over the legislation and the regulatione.

125
00:06:58,640 --> 00:07:01,400
Speaker 1: We're unfortunately of time and I've got to be nice

126
00:07:01,440 --> 00:07:03,600
Speaker 1: and fair and give everybody the same amount of time,

127
00:07:03,720 --> 00:07:06,760
Speaker 1: just really quickly. Are you a member of a political

128
00:07:06,839 --> 00:07:08,159
Speaker 1: party or have you ever been?

129
00:07:09,040 --> 00:07:12,000
Speaker 2: I have been. I've been members of both political parties.

130
00:07:12,040 --> 00:07:13,840
Speaker 2: I've seen the inner circles of both of them, and

131
00:07:13,840 --> 00:07:16,600
Speaker 2: I don't like them. I've never been back since seventeen.

132
00:07:16,720 --> 00:07:20,720
Speaker 2: Ideas with any political party, well, Waite, I can encourage

133
00:07:20,720 --> 00:07:22,840
Speaker 2: people to really think about what they do if they

134
00:07:22,960 --> 00:07:23,840
Speaker 2: join these parties.

135
00:07:24,040 --> 00:07:26,720
Speaker 1: Wayne, great to speak with you this morning, mate, Thank

136
00:07:26,800 --> 00:07:29,040
Speaker 1: you so very much for being part of our meet

137
00:07:29,080 --> 00:07:32,120
Speaker 1: the candidates for them. Thanks mane much.

138
00:07:32,200 --> 00:07:33,400
Speaker 2: Katie really appreciate it.

139
00:07:33,480 --> 00:07:34,880
Speaker 1: No worries at all. Thank you