Former Cranbourne councillor and state member Gary Rowe will contest a seat on Casey Council at the upcoming election.By Glen Atwell
“A DISGRACEFUL decline in the quality of local representation.”
That’s the ticket former Cranbourne MP and shire councillor Gary Rowe will ride into this year’s Casey Council elections.
Mr Rowe has declared he will nominate for the November ballot, in a bid to end factional fighting and inappropriate personal attacks.
“I’ve spent the last 12 months watching the endless infighting and reading about the constant personal attacks. Enough is enough,” Mr Rowe said.
“The current council has been marred by petty personal disputes, grandstanding for personal glory and gratification, personal abuse and harassment of staff. To add further insult, police have been called to restore order at council meetings.”
After serving as a councillor and MP for 13 years, Mr Rowe vacated public office in 2002, a time when he believed the local community was in good shape.
“I withdrew from public life believing that those who had been elected deserved time to make their mark for the betterment of our community. Unfortunately this has not been the case,” he said. “All that I have seen in the past six years is a decline in the quality of the representation offered us by some of our elected representatives who have failed to capitalise on the opportunities that have existed.”
If elected, Mr Rowe said he would push for the mayoral ballot to be scrapped, and replaced with a rotation system.
“Political bias, and divisions within certain parties, should not determine the mayoralty,” he said.
Mr Rowe described the recent announcement of a state government investigation into the behaviour of Casey councillors as long overdue.
“It’s going to be difficult for the department, but they had no choice, it’s something that’s been coming for a long time,” he said.
“I have decided that it is time to offer the people of Casey an alternative and it is my intention to offer myself for election. It is time to return stable governance to the city. A council that will not fear nor favour either side of politics regardless of their membership but govern in the interests of the families that have moved to Casey and continue to move here in record numbers.”
