Last Thursday night, the Kiama Business Chamber’s ‘Meet the Candidates’ event showcased seven of the eight candidate groups going head-to-head for your vote come the big day on 14 September 2024.

With five out of nine current councillors, including Mayor Neil Reilly, not seeking re-election, there will be a number of new faces leading our community. Given the precarious financial state of Council, special rate rises, asset sales and service reduction will bring a whole new set of challenges, opportunities and hopefully a lot less wasted money on legal disputes and code of conduct complaints.

The Bugle’s Donna Portland covered the event extensively and overall, most of the candidate groups have genuine platforms that acknowledge the need for change.

Change that has happened for those living in the community, whether that be cost of living, housing affordability or job opportunities. Changes to the way Council must engage with and not dictate to, the community. Changes that will focus on business, investment, housing and the night time economy.

As we foreshadowed in this column back in April 2024, change is coming, and we think that this will be a positive for our community.

Parts of the community will not embrace this because they have a vested interest in keeping things the same, constraining innovation and protecting their assets and wealth. The Bugle’s View is that we should support these candidates that are proposing genuinely new ideas, new thoughts, and a new approach.  

Although, the “Energy and Experience: Getting Council back on track” group, aka the Liberal Party seem to have gotten a bit lost in the discourse, particularly in the case of Bombo Quarry. As The Bugle has previously reported, the Bombo Quarry precinct landowners have been quite transparent with the entire community regarding the long term and complex nature of the project.

Many of the candidates for the upcoming election have noted this and foreshadowed the need for considerable changes to the draft masterplan as currently proposed by the Bombo Quarry landowners. Given the early and nascent stages of their masterplan, these candidates are rightly calling for these significant changes to be incorporated, before any proposal is formally submitted to Council and the State Government.

However, this seems to have all been lost in translation for the “Energy and Experience” team, led by Kiama Downs resident Yasmin Tatrai. In fact, her team seems to see Bombo Quarry as an immediate and promising solution to the housing crisis. This is despite the Bombo Quarry landowners advising the community that it is extremely unlikely that there will be any homes delivered this decade.

Does her team’s energy and experience covers large scale earthworks and remediation, geotechnical analysis and construction?

Even the Labor Party candidates have seen the light and gone quiet on spruiking Bombo Quarry as the panacea to our housing crisis. Since a Facebook post on 25 June 2024, stating that the re-development of Bombo Quarry was part of their election platform (as if they have any control over the timing of the project), the Labor socials and rhetoric has gone a little quiet on this magnificent long term opportunity.

Kudos to all the current Councillors seeking re-election for listening and engaging with the information that has been provided, and understanding the situation that faces our community.

A thought for team Tatrai. Were they caught in the throes of the now infamous Liberal Party mishap where more than 130 of their candidates were not nominated for the upcoming election due to a bungle from their State Executive. 

Perhaps that’s the reason they crossed out “Liberal Party” on their nomination forms?

In three weeks’ time we all have a responsibility to vote for a better future. New elected representatives will bring about a new change, and it’s your responsibility to ensure it’s a positive change.