THE most important event of the week was the visit to Council by the Premier and the Hon John Castrilli. They met with myself, Deputy Mayor Stephen Craddock and the Chief Executive Officer, Andrew Brien. It was an opportunity to further discuss what the City of Bunbury could do to work with the Premier in making Bunbury the second city of WA. That led to an overview of Council’s current and future projects including the Leschenault Inlet Precincts Master Plan, the Waterfront development, the Preston to Coast Regional Park, the need for a local and regional museum, the preservation and restoration of State Listed Heritage buildings, the Activity Centre Policy and the state of the local economy including retailing.
The Premier remains committed to making Bunbury the second city of WA but acknowledged that transferring an entire department to Bunbury was proving difficult to achieve. Nonetheless he remains very committed to ensuring that some sections of agencies and departments are relocated to Bunbury. All in all a very positive meeting that I am confident Council and the Premier and the Hon John Castrilli will follow up on.
On Tuesday there was an in-house meeting to discuss the residual effects of the June storms and the follow up work required and some of the residual effects.
On Wednesday the first issue I had to deal with was to speak to a newspaper about the issue of leadership. The truth is that Council initiated the survey and the comments about leadership have been on Councils website for several months so the media and the public have had access to those comments months before now. The real issue is for all those who have leadership roles including myself, the Deputy Mayor, all Councillors, the Chief Executive Officer and the five Directors need to respond in a positive and constructive way to all of the comments on leadership. The best way to do that is for all of us to lift our game and let the electors decide in October next year whether I and the Councillors have done enough.
Attending the State Conference is part of doing just that. The principal theme this year was ‘new opportunities, new ground’. The two principal addresses were about leadership. They included Sir Jackie Stewart who earned the title of ‘The Flying Scot’ in Formula One racing from 1965 to 1973.
The other principal address was from Captain Richard de Crespigny, the Qantas pilot who captained the A380 which suffered an engine explosion early in a Singapore to Sydney flight on 4 November 2010. The rest of the Conference included the AGM of WALGA, presentation by the Hon John Castrilli and Mark McGowan, and the Presidents of ALGA and WALGA.
On Monday I attended the Aged Care Games which was organised by the indefatigable Merv Mancer and his committee, the State Seniors Recreation Council and the staff and students at Edith Cowan University, and the various aged car facilities.
I am never happier than when I see people working together to ensure that every person in our community is valued and respected, and included in as many community activities as possible.
