Palmerston Mayor candidate Rob Waters, a qualified chef says he’s got strong leadership skills and wants to address a range of community issues, grow the local markets and ensure better fiscal management at the Council

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Out in Palmerston is where we're focusing on today and
I have got on the line with me right now,
Rob Waters, one of our mayoral hopefuls. Good morning to
your Rob.

Speaker 2 (00:12):
Katie. How are you? Yeah?

Speaker 1 (00:13):
Really good? Good to have you on the show mate.
You've got six minutes, no worries. You got six minutes
and a number of questions to get through. Are you
ready to get started?

Speaker 2 (00:25):
I can only do my best and that's what I offer.

Speaker 1 (00:28):
All right, let's do it. Rob. Why have you decided
to put your hand up to be me?

Speaker 2 (00:35):
Ok? Katie? Obviously I work in sales, and after speaking
to a lot of community because I walk in out
of a lot of restaurants and businesses up here in
PARMI a lot of them as well as working at
the fuel station, a lot of people continually say to
me that, you know, they're looking for a leader that
can actually lead from the front and be hands on

(00:55):
and not dismissive of people. And I believe that I've
got those qualifications and that as a major part of
why I've put my hand up for mayor Rob.

Speaker 1 (01:06):
In terms of qualifications and work experience, what qualifications and
work experience do you have which you reckon make you
best placed for the position.

Speaker 2 (01:17):
Yeah, that's a great question. And look Katie, as I
don't come from the mainstream corporate background. I am a
chef by trade and the last half of my career
as an executive chef, working both in Australia. I am Australia,
Europe Middle East where I've managed some five style hotels
over there, as well as in Indonesia in Asia where

(01:41):
I had three hundred and fifty employees underneath me directly.
I managed both front of house and back a house
there to deliver main results and that was done by
you know, obviously strong strong management with regards to financial
matters all the rest of it I do. I had

(02:01):
to have budgets across front of house, back a house
and including operations. Also back here in Darwin where I
led a team both in fruit and vagi and also
in the meat game, I rode a lot of tenders
that was successful and in procurement there I had to
I had to obviously deliver what I promised, which I

(02:24):
believe I did a fantastic job. And as a candidate,
I'm well aware that there's a professional development allowance that
I shall use to complete the Australian Institute of Company
Director's course.

Speaker 1 (02:37):
Now, in terms of what you see as the most
important issues in Palmerston, what would you say they are?

Speaker 2 (02:45):
Well, look, each rate player has a different issues. If
you ask me for my personal one and the firebreaks
around the Gun community. If you ask my next door neighbor, well,
his is the greening of the parks around gun that
seems to have seemed to have been lacking over the years. Now,
Danny touched on a fantastic area with regards to laneways.

(03:08):
I personally have an issue with that due to the
fact that a friend of mine was sort of forced
by his partner to lee Darwin after an attempted assault
happened in a dark laneway. I walk my dogs through
these laneways at night and they can be quite scary.
And I believe that, you know, in one of those
issues is that. Also, I've had an opportunity to speak

(03:31):
to numerous candidates that are running for Cancelor and obviously
we need to work together as a team. Another issue
that came forward that resonnated with me was social workers
in the library. I mean, that's a fantastic idea. My
son who's dyslexic. I've had firsthand experience where he was

(03:52):
sort of pushed away because he couldn't get the help
that he needed and as a result, you know, he
sort of hasn't been back to the library. And finally,
I suppose the biggest and best you're all cards of
Parmeerston is our markets Activate Activate. Palmerston has worked extremely well,
but at the moment, from what I'm led to believe,

(04:12):
there's an incident at the market, it's pushed back on
the association and under a cancel. I believe Cancel and
ATG need to work together to provide better security at
the moment with no one wants to see a repeat
of what happened at the show. And we want to
build our markets. We want to bring people into the center.

(04:33):
We want our markets to be better than Mindle. Sorry Darwin,
but that's what we want and that's the way that
we need to go.

Speaker 1 (04:39):
Now, Rob, what are your top three commitments to voters
or your policy platforms?

Speaker 2 (04:46):
Well, pretty much exactly what I've just pointed out, Katie.
I just really want to make Palmerston the biggest and
the best liberal place in the Northern Territory. Athena has
done a fantastic job over the years, and there's no
there's no there's no doubt that she's done a great job.
Danny's got fantastic ideas. My my one at the moment

(05:08):
is to get in there have a look at what's
planned for the future, because there's no point in if
I was to get in and then try to lobby
everything that's been done over the last eight years to
change that. We need We need to look at what
we've got now and move forward. And personally, my biggest
one is Cisco and budget management. That's where a lot

(05:29):
of people are asking the question where is the money
going and what is doing? The last thing we want
to see is what I believe could be a waste
of money. We don't need a concrete slab down the
middle of a road that doesn't need to be there.
For instance. Yes that may not the money may not
have come from cancel, but it's still what I believe
is wasted money. And that's that's where I want to

(05:50):
hold our cancel and myself accountable and will always be
approachable and I want to lead a CANCEL that is
working together for the community.

Speaker 1 (06:00):
Rob You've got about thirty seconds left, but I want
to ask, are you a member of a political party
or have you ever been.

Speaker 2 (06:07):
Full disclosure, I did join the COLP back in twenty
twenty three, twenty four prior to the elections. I wanted
to run in Drysdale once again because I wanted to
help the community. I wanted to I wanted to make
our area a much better place to live in and
I believe I may be still a member, but I
haven't paid my dues so I could have dropped off.

Speaker 1 (06:30):
Well, Rob, you're right on six minutes mate. Thank you
very much for having a chat with us and for
putting a hand up.

Speaker 2 (06:38):
No wh Katie, and I would just like to leave
with the fact that myself and five other people are
willing to put their hands up and try and help
the community, to be mayor, and a further fourteen others
including myself, so fifteen in total putting themselves out there
to be cancelers. I fully endorse absolutely everyone, and I

(06:59):
thank everyone for having a go. We've all seen some
pretty nasty things said about one another, and for myself,
I don't like driving around picking up people's signs and
hammering them back in, but I think it's fantastic. We
live in a society where people want to contribute to
their community.

Speaker 1 (07:17):
Yeah true. Rob, thanks so much for your time this morning.
Much appreciated.

Speaker 2 (07:22):
Thanks very much, Katie, you too.