Be careful who you vote for

TO THE residents and ratepayers of the South Gippsland Shire and more specifically, of the Tarwin Valley Ward, can I offer my sincere thanks for giving me the opportunity to represent you over the past three years, to restore stability and credibility to our Council.

Together with my fellow Councillors and the management team of the Shire, I believe that we have taken our region back to being a premier destination for people to live, work, visit and enjoy and be a region that others look at with envy.

This was no mean feat and was created through collaboration, thinking outside the square, and showing respect for each other by sticking to our original plan of holding each other to account for our actions and using democracy as our mantra in all decision-making.

We didn’t always get it right, but we showed that by letting our actions speak louder than our words, that we could create good for our Shire.

We had our detractors, those with negative attitudes who tried to undermine us personally and as a group, but by sticking together and listening to our people, I believe that we got the job right more often than not.

To look around the South Gippsland region and see what has been achieved over the past three years makes all those hours of reading, listening, emailing, phone calls, discussing and making decisions seem very worthwhile.

To look at the Leongatha streetscape, the Korumburra Hub, the new lights on the sporting ovals at Fish Creek, Toora, Mirboo North and Meeniyan, the upgrade of Peters Street in Mirboo North or the sealing of Simons Lane at Leongatha South and the upgrade of Ross Street in Meeniyan, as well as the planning for the Poowong North road sealing and the growth of Nyora that is upon us and then to marvel at a rail trail that now extends from Nyora through to Yarram, is extraordinary.

Our focus as a group has been to protect what we have, plan for what we don’t have, collaborate with others who provide services to the community to ensure we are on the same page and listen to what our people would like.

This I believe is the secret to success and is why we now have other local Government sectors reaching out to our shire officers to ascertain how we have achieved unity. Working together as a team, showing respect for each other’s ideas, understanding our roles and meeting expectations is the key and once you realise that there is no ‘I’ in team, then you can make it work.

I look forward to the upcoming elections and ask that you choose wisely when casting your vote as there are upcoming challenges that will require unity and strong decision-making as we plan for the future. So, please take the time to search out the best representation available for your ward so the success of the past three years can be built upon.

John Schelling, Leongatha. Candidate for Tarwin Valley ward.