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Speaker 1: That I've got Leah Potter joining me right now. Good

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Speaker 1: morning to you, Leah. Hi doing yeah, very well. Now Leah,

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Speaker 1: you've got five minutes to answer the questions which Max,

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Speaker 1: my producer, hopefully sent through to you. Are you ready?

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Speaker 2: I think I'm ready.

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Speaker 1: All right, let's do it. Leah. What job were you

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Speaker 1: in before putting your hand up for the election?

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Speaker 2: Well, I'm mainly a comedian. I host the adults only

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Speaker 2: comedy den at Smoke and Eke, and I do the

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Speaker 2: wickedly Witty Women at One More Brewery and down at

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Speaker 2: the Fat Joint in Cullen Bay. But it's not all

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Speaker 2: about the jokes for me. Although I have put some

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Speaker 2: kidding around into my campaign, even the kidding around is

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Speaker 2: actually based on plausible suggestions that I'd researched. I was

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Speaker 2: born here in Darwen, and I've been in the hospitality

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Speaker 2: industry and the adult industry in the territory for decades.

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Speaker 2: And I founded the Sunset Suit Kitchen, which is in

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Speaker 2: its fourth year now. A whole group of Tears keep

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Speaker 2: the hot food kitchen going each Sunday down at Doctors Gully,

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Speaker 2: and I go out on the street at nights with

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Speaker 2: blankets and food, and it's amazing local businesses and an

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Speaker 2: awesome community keep that soup kitchen going. And that is

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Speaker 2: where I do a lot of my research and gathered

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Speaker 2: data for solutions to the issues that are happening in Darlin.

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Speaker 2: I was born here in Darwen and I raised five

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Speaker 2: children here. I was married to a chef for eighteen

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Speaker 2: years and we had a licensed restaurant on the marina

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Speaker 2: boardwalk down at Culm Bay. So I've had decades of

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Speaker 2: experience immersed in this city as a resident and as

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Speaker 2: a business operator. And I put my hand up to

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Speaker 2: run for mayor because this is my hometown and I

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Speaker 2: love it and I continue to love it in between elections.

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Speaker 2: I'm not a career politician. I'm just a Dalen born

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Speaker 2: and bred girl and I think we can make Dalwen better.

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Speaker 2: And also I'm fifty two years old. I've seen a

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Speaker 2: lot of sailed initiatives in Dylan over the years, especially lately,

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Speaker 2: suggests from people. People putting these suggestions forward as solutions

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Speaker 2: to the issues that we have, but I remember that

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Speaker 2: we've already actually tried those solutions and they didn't work before.

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Speaker 2: And those main issues that I see that need addressing

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Speaker 2: are definitely crime and antisocial behavior, and those are driven.

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Speaker 2: I've found that these in the city are driven largely

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Speaker 2: by mental health and alcohol and addictions and poverty and homelessness,

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Speaker 2: and my focus on the their campaigns revolved around those issues,

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Speaker 2: but as well we've got a crisis with the RDH

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Speaker 2: and the ambulance service, and taking those issues into account,

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Speaker 2: I've put together a comprehensive plan from smough research into

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Speaker 2: initiatives that have worked in other communities, and in most

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Speaker 2: cases my suggestive solutions actually don't cost us sending extra money,

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Speaker 2: essentially just moving money sideways or reducing wasteful spending and

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Speaker 2: a more rigorous tender process to address the issues of

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Speaker 2: like under the table deals for mates and stuff like that.

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Speaker 2: So money is out there that we could move sideways

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Speaker 2: to those. I've seen lobbying since the anti general election

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Speaker 2: for more toilets in the city and for a twenty

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Speaker 2: four hour primary healthcare clinic and so solutions to homelessness

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Speaker 2: and antisocial behavior. And I've done a lot of electoral analysis.

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Speaker 2: I don't actually believe that I have any chance of

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Speaker 2: winning as there especially I haven't printed any plastic course routes.

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Speaker 2: I can't get over that the council will have a

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Speaker 2: ban on single use plastics throughout the electorate. But we

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Speaker 2: have this assault of single use plastics everywhere we look

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Speaker 2: during this election. It's crazy. Yes, Anyway, I didn't. I

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Speaker 2: printed ten stickers which I put over Rebecca Jennings old

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Speaker 2: course routes and I put them up and that I

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Speaker 2: just didn't want to participate in that. I've seen waste

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Speaker 2: of money and massive amount of landfill. Anyway, I don't

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Speaker 2: realistically believe I have a chance of winning as mayor,

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Speaker 2: but I think people should put me first because I've

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Speaker 2: continued to lobby for these issues in between elections and

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Speaker 2: for every vote I get, It's allowed a voice for

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Speaker 2: me to continue after the election. And as a comedian,

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Speaker 2: I would make the council meetings way more fun. And

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Speaker 2: I do have some cheeky suggestions, such as securing both

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Speaker 2: ends of them all and turning it into a strip

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Speaker 2: of marijuana cafes. I thought that would be like a

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Speaker 2: multi prong's initiative. It would help reduce crime because people

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Speaker 2: would be so chilled out, and it would increase spending

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Speaker 2: in the city because people would get the munchues and

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Speaker 2: want to get more food, and I think it would

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Speaker 2: increase council revenue because people would get really high and

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Speaker 2: they would forget about their parking meters and they'd just

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Speaker 2: get lots of fun. But that's a cheeky suggestion, but

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Speaker 2: it's based in reality that I did a lot of

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Speaker 2: research with Jeff Collins into harm minimization and the amazing

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Speaker 2: results I've had in color with once they legalized lead,

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Speaker 2: and there haven't been any many detrimental effects. We legalized

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Speaker 2: it in the Act, and I tried to do some

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Speaker 2: research as to whether there was a decrease in productivity

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Speaker 2: after they legalized lead in the Act, but because it's camera,

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Speaker 2: there wasn't any marked decrease in.

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Speaker 1: We have run out of time, Leah. I appreciate your

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Speaker 1: time this morning. I love the way well you were

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Speaker 1: so so time effective there that you'd even incorporated the

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Speaker 1: questions in. So thank you very much. We really appreciate

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Speaker 1: you having a chat to us this morning and all

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Speaker 1: the best. Thank you.