The end of the financial year is always an interesting time at Council. The delivery of the budget for the next year concludes the 8 months of deliberations and consultation.
This year we are preparing as Councillors for the Local Government Elections in October. There are a number of decisions that we cannot make as Council during the election period, which needs to be taken into consideration when planning forward.
Planning is a fascinating topic for municipalities. Complex and multi-faceted. I recently attended a conference in Creswick about planning. The biggest issue we currently experience statewide is the shortage of planners. The other issue we are facing in rural areas is the fact that we do not seem to be successful recruiting any professionals such as doctors, nurses, teacher, engineers. Most professionals prefer to stay in bigger cities and only consider travelling to smaller towns to work.
Housing crisis, affordability, households experiencing mortgage and financial stress are all words and phrases we often hear and see in the media. How do we deal with all of these stressors?
In the Central Goldfields Shire, we are experiencing an acute shortage of housing. This has been demonstrated in lots of different ways. The most confronting issue being, what can be done about it?
Another topic that was discussed was the need for workers. We are faced with an ageing population and growing worker shortages. Different jobs and data were presented and to me the most fascinating was the growing need for aged care workers, teachers and truck drivers, due to people retiring and a growing demand for their services.
Cr Anna De Villiers
Tullaroop Ward
