What motivated you to come to Greater Dandenong?
I think without a doubt the opportunities that this City of Opportunity presents.
Clearly there are challenges but they can be overcome by working with the community, council and staff.
Opportunities include dealing with the activities and developments around the Dandenong CBD.
There is the opportunity of working on a major transit city project with the State Government and the challenge of finding a balance between a major project of this type but ensuring the rest of the municipality doesn’t miss out in terms of priorities and emphasis from council.
What do you see as the city’s strengths?
No doubt the diversity of the community and I think the fact it is a major activity centre east of Melbourne that has gained a great deal of State Government support.
What are its weaknesses?
I don’t know… I would rather right now hear from council, staff and the community the aspects of the municipality they would like to see improved.
But no doubt the city faces the same challenges facing all local governments, such as cost shifting, and infrastructure renewal.
Would you consider pushing for a Strategic Services Partnership to allow private companies to run council services, similar to the one council rejected at the beginning of this year?
I would need to be briefed and have an understanding of the benefits of such a proposal. I understand the principal benefit of it is planning for future workforces.
Work forces of the future will be a difficult challenge given our ageing workforces.
In principal, the Strategic Services Partnership addressed that as an issue, but what I need to understand is what was proposed and what concerns were heard in relation to it.
Dandenong is trying to shrug an external image of crime and poverty.
How will you combat the image problem?
I think every resident of every municipality wants to see their city presented in the best way it possibly can be.
But this is fundamentally a resourcing issue – one shared by every CEO in local government – and that is the use of scarce council resources.
Greater Dandenong has a strong business community and contains 43 percent of the state’s manufacturing.
What ideas will you inject into supporting Greater Dandenong businesses?
Councils have a fundamental role in support and facilitation of business.
Greater Dandenong is already doing that extremely well and has for a number of years.
Otherwise you cannot sustain or continue to attract the number of businesses this city has.
I hope to continue what has already been done well at Greater Dandenong and to look for opportunities that further enhance the relationship between council and the important rate base in the commercial industrial sector.
