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BUSINESS
VOICE t MICHAEL MOWLE
PRESIDENT PORT MACQUARIE CHAMBER OF COMMERCE
P
ort Macquarie Chamber of Commerce recently hosted a meet the Candidates Forum at Westport Bowling Club. It was a great opportunity for the business community to meet and hear from both Mayoral and councillor candidates running in the upcoming Local Government election. A wide range of candidates from differing backgrounds and life experiences put forward their views and how they intend taking the organisation forward for the next term of council. All were passionate about the region and the common thread was a desire for improving our already great region and preserving its natural attributes whilst planning for growth. The hot topics of the evening were delivering infrastructure to support our growing region and housing affordability. Candidates put forward a wide range of ideas and strategies on how to deal with these challenges over the next decade and beyond. In terms of infrastructure delivery there was an acknowledgment of inaction of the past two decades which has lead to the current shortfall particularly in a road network to service the needs of the community. It was generally recognised that during the
next term of council a huge backlog of by an argument that such a move would infrastructure work is required along with result in a reduction in services provided to planning for the next couple of decades. the community. The discussion on this point Housing affordability was discussed in also raised a question as to the operational some detail by all candidates with a general efficiency of council services and whether consensus that high prices were being driven past rate increases had been justifiable. in large part by constrained supply and All candidates are to be congratulated for high demand. Most making themselves candidates recognised available for election that the situation There was also to public office and could be alleviated some spirited committing to serve by encouraging a mix debate around the their community. of housing types and Regardless of the possibility of a rate providing an adequate outcome and which freeze for a period of supply of zoned land candidates are elected time beyond the next across the region. there is little doubt term of council. Another topic raised that they face a range and discussed was the of challenges over the current council financial next term of council in reserves of circa $350m and whether this planning for and delivering infrastructure and money is completely tied to specific projects services to support our growing region. or council has discretion on where it is spent. As 2021 draws to a close the business Specific financial advice was provided and community can look back on another confirmed by several candidates that a large turbulent, challenging year which has percentage of the reserves are allocated to brought to the fore the resilience and planned infrastructure projects and hence ingenuity of local business once again. With cannot be legally allocated elsewhere. the recent easing of COVID restrictions and There was also some spirited debate less government intervention promised all our around the possibility of a rate freeze for business operators can now look forward to a a period of time beyond the next term of council. However, this policy was countered period of rapid recovery and optimism. GREATER PORT MACQUARIE
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