A message from the Mayor: An extraordinary result for democracy

Published on 22 August 2022

On Tuesday last week the Returning Officer in Kempsey declared the eight Councillors for the 30 July by-election.

The three new elected Councillors are Scott Butterfield, Kinne Ring and Dean Saul. Councillor Saul was a previous Councillor. The re-elected Councillors are Arthur Bain, Simon Fergusson, Anthony Patterson, Kerri Riddington and Alexandra Wyatt.

This Council will serve until September 2024. Welcome to you all!

Our robust democracy is exemplified by 21 candidates standing, which was only one less than the December 2021 election. Thank you to all candidates for putting up their hand to serve the people of Kempsey Shire.

When democracy is under attack around the world, it was wonderful to see the results of our local election being so successful.

The participation rate was improved over the December election. Despite the previous iVote input of 1,790 votes not being in this count, almost the same number of people (18,307) voted in the election.

At the December election there was 12.38% informal votes but at the recent election the informality dropped to 7.18%. You might try and guess why this is so, but the facts are impressive, as less votes were miscast and people continued to do their civic duty.

Now my fellow Councillors and I will get on with the tasks at hand, some with challenging issues. We will do our best to represent the Shire.

Vietnam Veterans Day

Last week I was privileged to attend the service at the Kempsey RSL Sub-branch to commemorate the Vietnam Veterans.

President Alan Wardrope spoke of the 25 soldiers who lost their lives at the Battle of Coral–Balmoral during May - June 1968.

Federal Member for Cowper, Mr Pat Conaghan, addressed the assembly on the need for respect in our society, especially for our Veterans.

It was an honour for me to lay a wreath on behalf of the Kempsey Shire community.

Lest We Forget.