6 November: half an hour live on air with Mitchell’s Front Page on 94.7 The Pulse – about the election, the campaigning and good news about the new Council’s position on the Clever Creative future vision
» Listen to the interview (30 min)
New Council committed to the Clever-Creative vision
Geelong now has a Council which is fully committed to the Clever Creative vision.
In an election survey, Geelong Sustainability asked: “From the extensive community engagement of the Our Future process, a 30-year consensus vision for the City of Greater Geelong was developed. ‘By 2047, Greater Geelong will be internationally recognised as a clever and creative city-region that is forward looking, enterprising and adaptive, and cares for its people and environment.’ If elected as a Councillor, do you commit to implementing the Clever and Creative Future vision including the necessary long-term strategies, short-term action plans and organisational changes?”
Six candidates who will now be councillors at a table with 11 seats – Sarah Mansfield, Stephanie Asher, Jim Mason, Bruce Harwood, Peter Murrihy and Trent Sullivan – replied that they are fully committed to the vision. The other five didn’t respond to the survey. But already with six councillors being fully committed, it means that there is a majority support for the implementation of the Clever Creative vision.
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Radio: The Pulse’s Brownbill Candidates Forum
12 of the candidates standing for election in Brownbill spoke in the foyer of 94.7 The Pulse on 10 October 2017. The candidates were given two minutes to introduce themselves, and at the end of the program, two minutes to make a conclusion.
Here is an excerpt of what Mik said at the forum, starting with program host Mitchell Dye’s introduction:
“To have real progress, we need stability. Stability comes from setting long-term goals, but that is not enough in itself. We also have to work for creating solid consensus around these goals. Initially that work involves what our parents plainly would call ‘decent manners’ when we communicate, and genuine respect for our differences whenever we interact and negotiate.
Mik campaigns to bring ‘progress done properly’ into local politics. He aspires to restore some well-known, old values that he claims have degraded and deteriorated in later years, both in Council and in our community. As a father to three primary school children, as a husband and house owner, car owner, cyclist, rate payer and a highly credited community worker with a Danish background, he is in particular talking about the two values honesty and responsibility.
Vote 1 for our future
Two independent council candidates, Doug Mann and Mik Aidt, decided on 22 September 2017 to join forces around a broader ‘Vote 1 for our future’ campaign.
“Local politics can’t be about individual aspirations – we need to think bigger, and we have to collaborate to create the sort of change which is necessary now,” they said in a joint statement.
» See videos from the launch event on 24 September.
How it works
Mudslinging, back-stabbing, corridor deals and big egos with polarised ‘all-or-nothing’ attitude will never get us there. We need people of common sense – people who have their feet and their hearts rooted on the ground in the local community and who haven’t secured a seat in Council simply to protect or enhance a special interest group or a specific industry – to create the kind of united leadership in the new Geelong Council what will create stability in our region. With stability comes investment and optimism, and that is the prerequisite for creating new jobs.
That is how it works. Importantly, that’s how the economy works. Consensus-seeking can no longer be a dirty word if we want our community to thrive. We must collaborate and cultivate a broader feeling of togetherness around the important issues such as what we do about unemployment, crime rates, unsafe roads, climate change…
Candidates seem to think that cheap promises of dollar-saving lollipops will get them votes. Promises in the style of “Longer green lights in the crossings” are so easy and costfree to come up with. You’d think that it would occur to those voters that someone will have to wait longer for red light if a ‘more green lights’ policy is implemented?
I say it is time to call the cheap tricks and the candyfloss-gimmicks out. Let’s take a bolder stand for honesty and for conducting our business and our council affairs properly. That is why I say it is not enough to promise ‘progress’. What we need is progress done properly,” explains Mik.
Will you support us?
Would you like to be part of that call for ‘something which is bigger’? Join our campaign team, or support us with a donation.
Connecting our community – for a healthy & happy, creative & clever Geelong
As an independent candidate, Mik will work to bridge the gap between left and right, and help shift the focus of our Council towards stability – the prerequisite for creating a healthy and safe environment for all.
To achieve this, Mik will focus his energy on bringing new jobs to Geelong and cultivating a community that is thriving and has a vibrant cultural life.
Mik is a bridge-builder who works for creating honest and united leadership – for our future.
• New jobs
• Careful town planning
• Safer roads
• Better recycling
• Vibrant arts scene
Vote 1 for Mik to help create a stable Greater Geelong with a long-term focus, where investment in innovative projects is encouraged and opportunities created.
With this election, you have an opportunity to help form a Council that represents our diverse community and will work together to achieve the vision for our future that over 16,000 Geelong residents contributed to.
Use your vote carefully. Stand up for what you care about!
United leadership
One of the short-term priorities of the new ‘Clever and Create Future’ vision for Geelong is ‘united leadership’.
“Strong, ethical leadership will be essential,” wrote the Commission of Inquiry in their report which lead to the sacking of the former Council in 2016.
The choice is in our hands this October when we vote. If we want – that is: if enough of us put our votes on candidates who stand up for our future and for progress done properly – we can get more than yet another Council as those we’ve had in the past, where each councillor has his or her own agenda and allies.
What Geelong needs now is a council that reflects and respects the diversity of our community. We need representatives of common sense who are able to work together and make decisions in the best interests of the whole community.
We can get a Council which is broadly committed to and united around turning an exciting future vision into reality. It won’t just happen by some miracle, it will require that a lot of us get involved in the campaign work. Will you help make this happen?
Aspirations of 16,000 residents
Find out which candidates will help implementing the new 30-year vision for our city, ‘Greater Geelong: A Clever and Create Future’. You can help signing the new Council up to the aspirations of 16,000 Geelong residents by putting these candidates highest in your ranking when you vote.
Over the last year, the municipality’s administrators and their team of staff have worked hard to collect and compile the survey data into this vision document. It was even buried in a time-capsule in front of the city hall at a ceremony on 30 August.
This Clever-Creative vision provides us with clarity and genuine insight along with some long-term guidelines and goals. Now let’s vote in a council that will listen to this call – and will begin the work with implementing these goals in the coming months and years.
Jobs and stability
We need a council that will make responsible and transparent decisions and be approachable for the community. To lead our community into a safe and job-secure future will require united leadership, stability and a spirit of optimism. You can read more about Mik’s thoughts on this here.
This is also what the One Planet Living principles are all about – a framework of long-term sustainability which Geelong Council already endorsed two years ago.
Both the 30-year vision and the One Planet Living framework provide what we need to get up on a good wave. However, our success as a city-region will depend on whether we are able to get everyone on the same page and create some stability and clear direction around it. This will require Councillors who are able to establish and build a more positive culture of collaboration, rather than the agression and trench-digging we are seeing unfolding in Council and in our community at the moment.
Mik Aidt is one such person. Read more about his background here.
There’s never been a more exciting time to be a Geelong resident. This October, we have been given an extraordinary opportunity to change not only the face of our city’s Council, but the overall direction and future prosperity of our entire region.
Make your vote count. Don’t forget to post your ballot back so it arrives by Friday 27 October 2017. Read more about the election.
