August 29, 2024 • 12 mins
Independent councillor Patricia White knows Shoalhaven City Council needs to lift its game with ratepayers, so what is she planning to offer as she eyes the top job in the September local elections.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
I heartshoal Haven.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
The council is facing a major financial crisis. We've got
Office of Local Government and the Minister both looking at
us no every day and we do need to make
some change. Angry ratepayers have a right to be angry.
Speaker 3 (00:17):
So it's not long now till the shoal Haven and
other New South Wales regions hold their local council elections. Yes,
voting is compulsory and we're not going to mince words
in this episode because shall Heaven City Council is frankly
a real mess. Finances are just one issue. Shall Haven
City Council has been found to have the highest council
(00:38):
of spendings in the state.
Speaker 4 (00:40):
Hello.
Speaker 3 (00:41):
I'm Peter Andrea and my guest today is Patricia White.
She's leading the Independence She's been a counselor since twenty twelve.
She's been deputy mayor for three terms. But this time
Patricia's got her eye on the top job. She wants
to be mayor. With the Liberals off the ticket due
to the monumental stuff up of missing the nomination's deadline.
(01:02):
Patricia White wants to reset of this election and she
believes politics is best left out of making decisions for communities.
She's advocating twenty twenty four as the year to wipe
away that bad blood that's really created a lot of disarmony.
In the last three years in particular, maybe even the
last one and a half years, it's been pretty toxic
(01:25):
in council. How do you change that?
Speaker 2 (01:29):
It has been toxic in council and I have been very,
very disturbed. You know, when we have fifty to sixty
people turned away from council meetings and they can't come inside,
and they can't come into a council chamber, into a
building that they actually pay for from their rates. That
upsets me greatly and we need to change that. And
(01:50):
I think the only way that it will be changed
is if we all work together. So you know, I'm
making a commitment that doesn't matter who gets onto council
as a council a lot. It doesn't matter if you're independent,
if you're green, if your labor. I'm intending to work
with everybody.
Speaker 3 (02:07):
Councils finances are basically a basket case. How do we
rectify that financial crisis the council's facing. Will there be
a need for a rate increase next year?
Speaker 2 (02:21):
So the Council is facing a major financial crisis. You know,
We've got Office of Local Government and the Minister both
looking at us nearly every day and we do need
to make some change. So for the last two and
a half years and longer, and people have known this
on Council since I've been there. I have a corporate
banking finance background and I've pulled them up many many
(02:43):
times on different issues with their finances. I'm very concerned
about the reports that come out of the Order to
General's Office when they're ordered in Council, which are publicly
available from the State Parliament, and I've spoken out very
loudly about that. I have spoken out ladly on the
floor of Council when it comes to finances that we
(03:05):
were heading down this track. Things that I picked up
and took to the Audit and Risk Committee on Council
instigated a few changes and one of them was with
the agreement of the other members, was the AAC report,
and so we really found out what was the bottom
line at council. So Council of Wells and I have
(03:25):
talked to quite a few financial experts in the city
and really from just the public information that's available really
drilled down to where the finances are and where the
savings can be made. Councilor Wells and I both tried
in January this year to put across seventeen points at
(03:46):
council about how we could save money, but the other
councilors didn't want to support that and they supported a
different plan at the Extraordinary Meeting of Council which is
slowly and very slowly getting implemented. But we don't have time.
We don't have time. You know, we're looking you know,
figures that I've looked at. We're looking at you know,
(04:08):
not being able to be sustainable after twenty twenty seven.
That's only two years away. It's not far away. And
you'll remember that back in twenty and fourteen fifteen, we
weren't fit for the future, we weren't sustainable, and they
wanted to merge us with Kyama Council at that time.
Well we proved with the help of quite a few
(04:31):
financial people and Joe Gash and the team, the whole
council team that was on then all the counselors, we
got out of fit for the future. We were one
of the top thirty councils in New South Wales. So
from sixteen down to now it's gone down the drain. Yeah,
what's happened, what's happened, it's been I see, it's been
a change of priorities in the council and that's what
(04:54):
you have to look at. You need to get back
to the basics of roads, rates and rubbish and all
three of those areas are in crisis point at council,
I believe at the moment, and it needs to be
fixed up. But you can't fix that up until you
fix the finances up, So the finances have to come first.
I don't agree with a huge rate increase. We don't
(05:15):
need it if we have a good look at ourselves.
And I believe what Council Oils and myself put forward
in January this year eight percent. That's all we need
about eight percent and that includes rate pick. Now you
go back to twenty seventeen and Council applied for a
huge IPART increase. IPART come back and send to us
(05:37):
at the time. We'll give you a smaller increase, but
live within your means, Counsel. And I believe that if
that forty four percent had gone to IPART, because one
thing I'm really good at is doing research and you know,
following through. You know, I'm up half the night sometimes
reading papers and doing research on the business papers. I
believe that I would have come back and said, no, sorry, council,
(06:00):
live within your budget. When you can live within your means,
then we might look at a rate rise for you. Interestingly,
when you look across the state, a lot of councils
were told that a lot of councils that put in
big rate rises, they come back and say, live within
your meants. Forty four percent would have been same old,
same old. Nothing had change, but we need change.
Speaker 3 (06:22):
And any change, of course, sits squarely with shoal Haven
residents when they come out to vote on Saturday, September fourteen.
More soon from our conversation with Counselor Patricia White.
Speaker 1 (06:34):
I heart shoal Haven. I heart shoal Haven.
Speaker 3 (06:40):
Hello, I'm Peter Andrea. Well is it time that shong
Haven City Council just got back to dealing with potholes,
garbage collection and other grassroots issues? On September fourteen, rate
payers will get the chance to send a message to
the new set of councilors that they want an end
to the toxic culture that's impact acted real effectiveness of
(07:01):
local government. In the shoal Haven Independent Patricia White has
high hopes of getting into the top job, and she
says she's more than qualified to get the books back
into the black.
Speaker 2 (07:14):
Back in my days in corporate banking, I dealt with
the top ten percent of Australia and they're not easy
people to deal with, you know. I've read some of
the biggest balance sheets in the country and been able
to work with them to provide them their financial needs etc.
So I believe I've got the experience. Since I've left
the bank and moved to Aladulla about thirty years ago,
(07:35):
I find that I've helped many many community organizations. But
I've also helped individuals who have businesses who weren't doing
so well, and I've been able to help them trade
out of issues that they had and I'm proud to
say they're still operating today.
Speaker 3 (07:52):
I'm not sure if I'd like to work with some
of the heavy financial hitters of Australia or the world,
or an angry ratepayer.
Speaker 2 (07:59):
Well, look, I can tell you I used to work
with mister Bond. I used to work with mister scase
and we know where they went down the drains etc.
But in saying that, angry rate payers have a right
to be angry because they drive on the road and
hit the potholes. I've blown my tires and it's not
good enough. And so this term of council really needs
(08:22):
to focus on I believe no huge rate increases. We've
got to get the finances fixed. New South Wales Treasury
said scholl Haven Council, you're not fit for the future.
That was back in fourteen, but then by sixteen we
were because we put the hard work in. We all
work together and all the councilors then work together and
(08:43):
we solve the problems. And that's what we have to
do now. We don't want a divided council. We need
to have good people on the council that can work
to solve the problems. We need to address the roads.
They critically need to be addressed. So does I waste
but the roads. You know, I've talked to some of
the best road engineers in the country, and I've also
(09:08):
talked to the man that digs the hole on the
side of the road and fills the pothole. I've talked
to them as well. And I've been too many a
roads conference and all of the new technology and everything.
I bring that back to council and I talk at
length with some of the engineers in council because one
of my biggest bugbears is that we don't maintain our
(09:32):
table drains. So go for a drive down into Urubadella.
Go out, you know, go out to shallow crossing across
the river and then go into Urubadella Council. It's like
driving on the highway, but down here we don't maintain
our table drains. And you know, you go up budge
On Road, you're just about shaken out of your car.
You go down Sussex Inlet Road, And it was explained
(09:53):
really easy to me by somebody was a road engineer.
He said, Patricia, look at the pavement. Look where the
pavement finishes at the side of the road and hits
the dirt or the grass. And if the dirt or
the grass is higher than the pavement, you get the
water underneath the pavement which forms the potholes. So you know,
they are simple solutions. We can start grading the side
(10:15):
of the road. I can't tell you how many people
who live on the dirt roads and say to me, Patricia,
when you come to grade our road? When do you
come to grade our road? I know we have a program,
but we've got to put a proper program in place.
We then need to get some good road engineers, and
we also need to put some funding away. If you
(10:35):
read the budget, from the budget that was passed which
I voted against in June, we took seventeen point nine
million dollars out of the road budget. Mid Coast Council
this year will spend sixty eight million dollars on their
roads because they put a funderway for roads to start
getting them repaired.
Speaker 4 (10:55):
So a final pitch, why should we vote for you?
Speaker 2 (10:59):
Because I've got a passion for the shoal Haven I
have since I moved here thirty years ago. I've helped
lots of community organizations and I really want to help
the residents. One thing I'm going to do that's very
different that I haven't seen before, is every two weeks
I'm going to open the Mayor's office up and the
general public can just walk in off the street and
(11:20):
come and see the mayor and tell the mayor what
their issues, problems, whatever are. So we can get them fixed,
so they're not sitting month after month or week after
week wondering when some accounts are going to fix the problem.
Speaker 4 (11:32):
That's going to be a very busy day.
Speaker 2 (11:34):
It's going to be a very busy day, and I'm
thinking that some people might have to wait. But I'm
happy to do that because I think people have the
right if they want to come and yell and scream
at me, Let them come and yell and screaming at me,
because they're obviously upset and they need some help and
or they need something done. So I'll be there for them.
Speaker 4 (11:54):
No security guards at the door, No.
Speaker 2 (11:55):
Security guards at the door. Let me tell you, if
they want to put security guards at the door, I'll
go and sit out in the courtyard, or I'll go
and sit over in the over in out the front
of the entertainment center. There's plenty of places that we
can do it. And it's quite interesting when you said
you know it's going to be a long queue, Well,
I'd be looking forward to see how long the queue
is on the first day.
Speaker 3 (12:17):
Patricia White's more than a little obsessed with potholes, but
hoping voters will see she's a no nonsense answer to
getting shoal Haven City Council back on track. That's all
for now for this episode of My Heart shal Haven,
proudly supported by the new South Wales Government.
Speaker 4 (12:33):
I'm Peter Andrea. I'll catch you next time.
Speaker 1 (12:41):
I heartshal Haven.
I heartshoal Haven.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
The council is facing a major financial crisis. We've got
Office of Local Government and the Minister both looking at
us no every day and we do need to make
some change. Angry ratepayers have a right to be angry.
Speaker 3 (00:17):
So it's not long now till the shoal Haven and
other New South Wales regions hold their local council elections. Yes,
voting is compulsory and we're not going to mince words
in this episode because shall Heaven City Council is frankly
a real mess. Finances are just one issue. Shall Haven
City Council has been found to have the highest council
(00:38):
of spendings in the state.
Speaker 4 (00:40):
Hello.
Speaker 3 (00:41):
I'm Peter Andrea and my guest today is Patricia White.
She's leading the Independence She's been a counselor since twenty twelve.
She's been deputy mayor for three terms. But this time
Patricia's got her eye on the top job. She wants
to be mayor. With the Liberals off the ticket due
to the monumental stuff up of missing the nomination's deadline.
(01:02):
Patricia White wants to reset of this election and she
believes politics is best left out of making decisions for communities.
She's advocating twenty twenty four as the year to wipe
away that bad blood that's really created a lot of disarmony.
In the last three years in particular, maybe even the
last one and a half years, it's been pretty toxic
(01:25):
in council. How do you change that?
Speaker 2 (01:29):
It has been toxic in council and I have been very,
very disturbed. You know, when we have fifty to sixty
people turned away from council meetings and they can't come inside,
and they can't come into a council chamber, into a
building that they actually pay for from their rates. That
upsets me greatly and we need to change that. And
(01:50):
I think the only way that it will be changed
is if we all work together. So you know, I'm
making a commitment that doesn't matter who gets onto council
as a council a lot. It doesn't matter if you're independent,
if you're green, if your labor. I'm intending to work
with everybody.
Speaker 3 (02:07):
Councils finances are basically a basket case. How do we
rectify that financial crisis the council's facing. Will there be
a need for a rate increase next year?
Speaker 2 (02:21):
So the Council is facing a major financial crisis. You know,
We've got Office of Local Government and the Minister both
looking at us nearly every day and we do need
to make some change. So for the last two and
a half years and longer, and people have known this
on Council since I've been there. I have a corporate
banking finance background and I've pulled them up many many
(02:43):
times on different issues with their finances. I'm very concerned
about the reports that come out of the Order to
General's Office when they're ordered in Council, which are publicly
available from the State Parliament, and I've spoken out very
loudly about that. I have spoken out ladly on the
floor of Council when it comes to finances that we
(03:05):
were heading down this track. Things that I picked up
and took to the Audit and Risk Committee on Council
instigated a few changes and one of them was with
the agreement of the other members, was the AAC report,
and so we really found out what was the bottom
line at council. So Council of Wells and I have
(03:25):
talked to quite a few financial experts in the city
and really from just the public information that's available really
drilled down to where the finances are and where the
savings can be made. Councilor Wells and I both tried
in January this year to put across seventeen points at
(03:46):
council about how we could save money, but the other
councilors didn't want to support that and they supported a
different plan at the Extraordinary Meeting of Council which is
slowly and very slowly getting implemented. But we don't have time.
We don't have time. You know, we're looking you know,
figures that I've looked at. We're looking at you know,
(04:08):
not being able to be sustainable after twenty twenty seven.
That's only two years away. It's not far away. And
you'll remember that back in twenty and fourteen fifteen, we
weren't fit for the future, we weren't sustainable, and they
wanted to merge us with Kyama Council at that time.
Well we proved with the help of quite a few
(04:31):
financial people and Joe Gash and the team, the whole
council team that was on then all the counselors, we
got out of fit for the future. We were one
of the top thirty councils in New South Wales. So
from sixteen down to now it's gone down the drain. Yeah,
what's happened, what's happened, it's been I see, it's been
a change of priorities in the council and that's what
(04:54):
you have to look at. You need to get back
to the basics of roads, rates and rubbish and all
three of those areas are in crisis point at council,
I believe at the moment, and it needs to be
fixed up. But you can't fix that up until you
fix the finances up, So the finances have to come first.
I don't agree with a huge rate increase. We don't
(05:15):
need it if we have a good look at ourselves.
And I believe what Council Oils and myself put forward
in January this year eight percent. That's all we need
about eight percent and that includes rate pick. Now you
go back to twenty seventeen and Council applied for a
huge IPART increase. IPART come back and send to us
(05:37):
at the time. We'll give you a smaller increase, but
live within your means, Counsel. And I believe that if
that forty four percent had gone to IPART, because one
thing I'm really good at is doing research and you know,
following through. You know, I'm up half the night sometimes
reading papers and doing research on the business papers. I
believe that I would have come back and said, no, sorry, council,
(06:00):
live within your budget. When you can live within your means,
then we might look at a rate rise for you. Interestingly,
when you look across the state, a lot of councils
were told that a lot of councils that put in
big rate rises, they come back and say, live within
your meants. Forty four percent would have been same old,
same old. Nothing had change, but we need change.
Speaker 3 (06:22):
And any change, of course, sits squarely with shoal Haven
residents when they come out to vote on Saturday, September fourteen.
More soon from our conversation with Counselor Patricia White.
Speaker 1 (06:34):
I heart shoal Haven. I heart shoal Haven.
Speaker 3 (06:40):
Hello, I'm Peter Andrea. Well is it time that shong
Haven City Council just got back to dealing with potholes,
garbage collection and other grassroots issues? On September fourteen, rate
payers will get the chance to send a message to
the new set of councilors that they want an end
to the toxic culture that's impact acted real effectiveness of
(07:01):
local government. In the shoal Haven Independent Patricia White has
high hopes of getting into the top job, and she
says she's more than qualified to get the books back
into the black.
Speaker 2 (07:14):
Back in my days in corporate banking, I dealt with
the top ten percent of Australia and they're not easy
people to deal with, you know. I've read some of
the biggest balance sheets in the country and been able
to work with them to provide them their financial needs etc.
So I believe I've got the experience. Since I've left
the bank and moved to Aladulla about thirty years ago,
(07:35):
I find that I've helped many many community organizations. But
I've also helped individuals who have businesses who weren't doing
so well, and I've been able to help them trade
out of issues that they had and I'm proud to
say they're still operating today.
Speaker 3 (07:52):
I'm not sure if I'd like to work with some
of the heavy financial hitters of Australia or the world,
or an angry ratepayer.
Speaker 2 (07:59):
Well, look, I can tell you I used to work
with mister Bond. I used to work with mister scase
and we know where they went down the drains etc.
But in saying that, angry rate payers have a right
to be angry because they drive on the road and
hit the potholes. I've blown my tires and it's not
good enough. And so this term of council really needs
(08:22):
to focus on I believe no huge rate increases. We've
got to get the finances fixed. New South Wales Treasury
said scholl Haven Council, you're not fit for the future.
That was back in fourteen, but then by sixteen we
were because we put the hard work in. We all
work together and all the councilors then work together and
(08:43):
we solve the problems. And that's what we have to
do now. We don't want a divided council. We need
to have good people on the council that can work
to solve the problems. We need to address the roads.
They critically need to be addressed. So does I waste
but the roads. You know, I've talked to some of
the best road engineers in the country, and I've also
(09:08):
talked to the man that digs the hole on the
side of the road and fills the pothole. I've talked
to them as well. And I've been too many a
roads conference and all of the new technology and everything.
I bring that back to council and I talk at
length with some of the engineers in council because one
of my biggest bugbears is that we don't maintain our
(09:32):
table drains. So go for a drive down into Urubadella.
Go out, you know, go out to shallow crossing across
the river and then go into Urubadella Council. It's like
driving on the highway, but down here we don't maintain
our table drains. And you know, you go up budge
On Road, you're just about shaken out of your car.
You go down Sussex Inlet Road, And it was explained
(09:53):
really easy to me by somebody was a road engineer.
He said, Patricia, look at the pavement. Look where the
pavement finishes at the side of the road and hits
the dirt or the grass. And if the dirt or
the grass is higher than the pavement, you get the
water underneath the pavement which forms the potholes. So you know,
they are simple solutions. We can start grading the side
(10:15):
of the road. I can't tell you how many people
who live on the dirt roads and say to me, Patricia,
when you come to grade our road? When do you
come to grade our road? I know we have a program,
but we've got to put a proper program in place.
We then need to get some good road engineers, and
we also need to put some funding away. If you
(10:35):
read the budget, from the budget that was passed which
I voted against in June, we took seventeen point nine
million dollars out of the road budget. Mid Coast Council
this year will spend sixty eight million dollars on their
roads because they put a funderway for roads to start
getting them repaired.
Speaker 4 (10:55):
So a final pitch, why should we vote for you?
Speaker 2 (10:59):
Because I've got a passion for the shoal Haven I
have since I moved here thirty years ago. I've helped
lots of community organizations and I really want to help
the residents. One thing I'm going to do that's very
different that I haven't seen before, is every two weeks
I'm going to open the Mayor's office up and the
general public can just walk in off the street and
(11:20):
come and see the mayor and tell the mayor what
their issues, problems, whatever are. So we can get them fixed,
so they're not sitting month after month or week after
week wondering when some accounts are going to fix the problem.
Speaker 4 (11:32):
That's going to be a very busy day.
Speaker 2 (11:34):
It's going to be a very busy day, and I'm
thinking that some people might have to wait. But I'm
happy to do that because I think people have the
right if they want to come and yell and scream
at me, Let them come and yell and screaming at me,
because they're obviously upset and they need some help and
or they need something done. So I'll be there for them.
Speaker 4 (11:54):
No security guards at the door, No.
Speaker 2 (11:55):
Security guards at the door. Let me tell you, if
they want to put security guards at the door, I'll
go and sit out in the courtyard, or I'll go
and sit over in the over in out the front
of the entertainment center. There's plenty of places that we
can do it. And it's quite interesting when you said
you know it's going to be a long queue, Well,
I'd be looking forward to see how long the queue
is on the first day.
Speaker 3 (12:17):
Patricia White's more than a little obsessed with potholes, but
hoping voters will see she's a no nonsense answer to
getting shoal Haven City Council back on track. That's all
for now for this episode of My Heart shal Haven,
proudly supported by the new South Wales Government.
Speaker 4 (12:33):
I'm Peter Andrea. I'll catch you next time.
Speaker 1 (12:41):
I heartshal Haven.
Popular Podcasts
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.
Therapy Gecko
An unlicensed lizard psychologist travels the universe talking to strangers about absolutely nothing. TO CALL THE GECKO: follow me on https://www.twitch.tv/lyleforever to get a notification for when I am taking calls. I am usually live Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays but lately a lot of other times too. I am a gecko.