Mount Gambier’s candidates for this month’s State Election took centre stage at The SE Voice’s candidate forum on Sunday afternoon. Independent Troy Bell and Liberal Ben Hood were joined by Labor MLC Clare Scriven who had to stand in for Labor candidate Katherine Davies. The event was emceed by local media personality Alan Richardson and was supported by the Mount Gambier City Council, which waived the hire fee for the City Hall session. The SE Voice asked readers to submit questions for the candidates to be addressed at the event.
Where were your election signs printed? Were they locally sourced and printed or elsewhere? If elsewhere and organised through independent/political party means, why could you not convince your own party to purchase/have them made locally?
Ben Hood: My corflutes were printed outside of the region. I did go to Liberal HQ and asked to ensure everything was done local as possible. I got as much printed locally as possible.
Clare Scriven: Katherine has had 100 of herself printed, but they were part of a bulk lot in Adelaide. We have made sure they can be recycled.
Troy Bell: 100% of all our material is designed locally and printed locally. All of our design and graphic work and printing including coreflutes were all done here in Mount Gambier. I do acknowledge it is a bit unfair to other candidates as they are dictated to by their parties.
Do you think Mount Gambier receives the resources and funding it deserves as South Australia’s second largest city?
Clare Scriven: Last time Peter Malinauskas was here he was talking about the incredible opportunities down here and reflected how Mount Gambier is different to other cities. They have had real major crises. In Mount Gambier we tend to be very self-sufficient, we pride ourselves on being able to get in and get it done. I think it might have been limiting in some way. Peter Malinauskas sees the potential of our region and sees having that resourcing will pay off socially and economically.
Troy Bell: It’s an absolutely bloody disgrace, there is no way we get what we deserve. Steven Marshall’s party has been the biggest disappointment of my political career. I think the last four years have been worse. It’s not just here, it’s all regional SA. Look at Nick McBride in MacKillop threatening to leave because he was being ignored. Dan Cregan who quit the party because he could not get decent transport … it is an absolute disgrace. You can sit here, you can blame everybody else for some reason or another or you can get off your butt and do something about it and that’s what I have done with the Future Mount Gambier and surrounds document which gives guidance to those in our region.
Ben Hood: Federally we get the resources we need. This state will be led by one of the two major parties and we need to ensure someone is in the room and banging the table … and has the ear of the ministers and does not stop. It’s the city state of SA, we need to begin to solve that issue. We need to see people being moved out to the regions, to grow our population in the regions. Decentralising government services can increase our population. That will be my focus if I have the privilege of being the member for Mount Gambier of being that person in the room banging on the table for Mount Gambier.
Millions of dollars are being spent on upgrading and duplicating roads in Adelaide, yet state roads in the Mount Gambier area are full of potholes. Do you think this is acceptable? What are you prepared to do to remedy this?
Troy Bell: This is a topic that comes in our door every second week. Of course we need more money to invest in regional roads. The last 10km of South Road is going to cost taxpayers $10b. Of course we need more money, but we need to think about how we do things smarter. We have got to go back to first principles and employ those people here locally because they have better care and understanding. I’m talking about reinstating highways department here.
Ben Hood: The Liberal Government has committed $2.5b to fix 4000km of regional roads. There is a significant backlog we have after 16 years of Labor not fixing it. No, our roads are not in great condition, but we have to work through that backlog. We need a second term to get on with it.
Clare scriven: I go to Adelaide several times a week and the roads are appalling. We have not seen anything in the last four years of the Liberals to bring it back to regions. South Road there were cheaper options and it is a huge amount. We need more money for roads and we need to acknowledge some of those big transport corridors help our regions.
How do you feel about the transportation options available in our city? Can our residents affordably get where they need to go?
Ben Hood: As a local representative on council I fully supported council and the Mayor writing to the Minister about public transport here in Mount Gambier. There are significant issues with it … there are scheduling issues and with timing. There needs to be some serious work done on public transport. I have supported the Mayor et cetera to ensure we do have public transport that reflects the second biggest city in the state.
Clare Scriven: This is something I have spoken about in parliament and so did Troy. The buses are not fit for purpose. If we are trying to attract people from Adelaide and Melbourne post-COVID they assume we have public transport. It can actually be a real brake on our economic development and a real issue for people who do not drive. It is not only transport within Mount Gambier, but also regional towns. People from neighbouring towns … just so limited.
Troy Bell: There is no doubt our public transport is not fit for purpose. We have got big buses going around a loop that has not changed for 30 years. It is a big bus with a small patronage running around a fixed loop and this town has grown in different directions. City council are doing a lot of work. We also have another issue. I have got an 18yo daughter and the number of times I get called at 1 in the morning or later because she’s waited an hour for a taxi. Her friends walk home and that is putting our kids in danger. We need to look at other options. If it is Uber I will front the taxi industry and stare them down. I understand their issue … Friday night and Saturday night it spikes. We do not have the number of operators to meet the response time. I have spoken to number of publicans and … a lot of people who have been picked up for drink driving because they have waited for an hour and a half for a taxi.
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