Palmerston Mayor candidate Dani Eveleigh says she’s enjoyed her time as a Councillor but is keen to make a few changes so has put her hand up to be Mayor and has committed to do more to address anti-social behaviour in hotspots and restore pride in the community

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Next up and joining us on the line is Danny Everly.
Good morning to you. Danny.

Speaker 2 (00:05):
Good morning Katie. How are you yeah?

Speaker 1 (00:07):
Really good? Now, Danny, We've got about six minutes. I've
got a number of questions to get through. Are you ready?

Speaker 2 (00:13):
I am, let's do it.

Speaker 1 (00:15):
Why did you decide to put your hand up to
be me?

Speaker 2 (00:20):
So, Katie, As you would know and a lot of
your listeners know, I was a member of the tenth
Council for a period of time, about ninety percent of
the term. I think I calculated out and I really
did love the time that I had on council and
working with the community and being able to address community
needs and advocate for them. So I having, you know,

(00:44):
the local government elections now come up, I thought, well,
it's it's a prime opportunity for me to put myself forward.
I make you know, statements and would like to see
a few things happen slightly differently, and so in order
to do that, rather than just sitting back and you know,
being a keyboard warrior, I am putting my hand up
and wanting to take that step and represent the community.

Speaker 1 (01:05):
Danny. Some might be asking, why have put your hand
up to be there when you step down from your
counselor position not too long ago.

Speaker 2 (01:13):
Yeah, absolutely, Katie, And that's a that's a completely fair question. Now,
there was a there was a matter that I'm told
of during that period of time, and it's probably you
know that matter in itself and how that was handled
as to why I am now putting my hand up
as well in the maror position. So you know what

(01:34):
did occur that there's some confidentiality around that, and I
don't want to go into everything in detail, but I
wasn't comfortable with it and felt that at the time
it was certainly better for me to step away and
look after me and my family in that process as
opposed to you know, try and I don't know but

(01:55):
if I use the word site just the appropriate terminology.
But yeah, certainly, putting health and mental health especially first
was the process that I took in in that situation, Danny.

Speaker 1 (02:10):
In terms of qualifications and work experience, what qualifications or
work experience do you have which you think makes you
best placed for the position.

Speaker 2 (02:20):
Yes, it's Katie, So I hold her a Bachelor of Business.
I'm also currently doing my honors degree. I've got a
partial law degree, but decided that I wasn't going to
be a practicing lawyer, so I haven't completed that. I've
been a volunteer on a lot of boards for many
many years, notably the Top End Women Legal Service. I

(02:42):
think I'm coming up to nine years as a board
member with that organization. I've been working in the community
in various roles for many many years. I've been in
partisans for twenty two years now. I've held seeing your
leadership positions in every tier of government, so I do
know the understanding of the inner workings of cross government relations

(03:05):
and being able to navigate those complexities at times and
work within a bipartisan approach that is absolutely necessary within
local government to achieve results. And I'm out there in
the community, so I think I know our community quite well.
I'm speaking to people on the ground on a daily basis.

(03:25):
Just this morning, I met up with the land Care
volunteers out at Mitchell Creed Catchment to go through their
planning and look at what they see as the priorities
for that area moving forward. As well. I'm a strong
advocate for our youth and our youth in sports, and
so I put my money where around mouth is in

(03:46):
that sense, and I sponsor a number of the local
clubs and I'm also an advocate for our seniors, so
I'm a sponsor for the Parmesan Richfield Seniors Group and
have needs for the last few years as well.

Speaker 1 (03:58):
Now, in terms of issues out in Palmerston, what do
you see as being the most important issues in Palmerston, Katie?

Speaker 2 (04:07):
Like, we're everywhere and I think Parmas is not unique,
the territory is not unique. But across Australia we've got
an increase of any social behavioral crime and yes they're
not local government issues per se, but we've certainly got
a role to play there. And within our older suburbs

(04:27):
across Palmerston we've got an issue with lane waves and
this is a big one for me. We've got laneways
and we've got unlipped areas, so open spaces where it's
all connected and these become hot spots, like they become
areas where people can just congregate and congregate quite easily
with whether it's alcohol, whether it's fighting, whether it's they're

(04:50):
getting together to work out where to next. But these
are certainly areas where I'd like us to see from
a NTY government and local government coming together to have
a look at what we could do to mitigate and
really reduce some of the confirms that are going on
in these spaces. Another one is around, particularly when we're

(05:13):
talking local government sorry the older suburbs, is that we've
got a situation where it feels as though in the
last couple of years we've moved our focus from the
whole of Palmerston to more just the growth and the

(05:33):
new and shiny, and unfortunately, what's that what that has
done is that the areas that are older and that
you know, when you're older, you need a bit more
love sometimes, and so they've really gone downhill. So what
I'd like to see as a really peel back and
get everything up to a standard so the whole of Palmerston.

(05:57):
Palmerston's a place for people, and so we want people
to have pride in their place. And once we've got
pride in our place, you know, and our neighbors start
to see that, you know, oh you're taking a bit
more careful, I'll take a bit more care in mine
as well. So it's you know, it's bringing the whole
of Palmerston back up to that level so that we
can really hold on to our community members and encourage

(06:20):
them to have that pride in place again.

Speaker 1 (06:22):
Dunny, we've run out of time, but I have got
a question that I will need to ask you. I'm
asking all the candidates. Are you a member of a
political party or have you ever been?

Speaker 2 (06:31):
Yeah, Katie, I do in the Labor Party in June
twenty twenty three, prior to the anti government elections. Am
still a member of that party. However, I've made the
statement before I do not believe that party politics have
a role in local government.

Speaker 1 (06:46):
Well, Danny, everly good to speak to you this morning.
Thank you so much for your time.

Speaker 2 (06:51):
Thank so much, Katie.

Speaker 1 (06:52):
Thank you