Representing all communities across the shire

SOUTH Gippsland Shire Mayor Cr Mohya Davies is excited about 2022 and confident she has a great team of councillors ready to serve the best interests of the communities they represent.

She is the only member of the new council elected in November to have served on council previously.

She did so between 2008 and 2016, completing two terms.

During that time, she was twice deputy mayor, and also enthusiastically took up opportunities to gain extra knowledge and take on additional responsibilities.

“I did company directors courses and lots of MAV (Municipal Association of Victoria) courses; I represented council on Rural Councils Victoria and I did a couple of trips to Canberra with the councils.”

Her knowledge and understanding of how local council works won her the support of other councillors, encouraging them to install her as mayor.

“That’s been a new challenging role for me, which I’m enjoying, and I’m very pleased because I enjoy the support of all the councillors,” Cr Davies said.

She noted all the councillors are involved in their local communities in a range of ways.

“They’re all enjoying their new role as a councillor able to represent their communities quite differently and look at the bigger picture,” Cr Davies said.

It’s been a strange start for the new team of councillors, with an intensive transition program through November followed by a lull over Christmas.

“We’ve been fielding emails and doing a bit of research on other things, but I’m feeling confident about the future of council and looking forward to getting back into it,” Cr Davies said.

“In the meantime, there’s lots of community meetings and the Australia Day celebrations, so the councillors have all been busy doing those things.”

Cr Davies outlined the main aim of the council and the unified approach its members plan to adopt.

“The thing that we’ve agreed as a council is to try and spread our nine councillors across the whole shire so that we can represent all of the communities equitably,” she said.

Cr Davies said community members have been supportive, and people’s efforts to contact councillors and bring them up to speed with their issues have been appreciated.