Casey mayor Janet Halsall is encouraging residents to think about enrolling as a candidate in this November’s local government elections. By Elizabeth Hart
ELEVEN Casey councillors go to the poll in November.
Mayor Janet Halsall has overseen a disruptive chapter in the history of the municipality. Now she is encouraging more people to nominate.
A strong field of council candidates can threaten an incumbent.
But Casey mayor Cr Janet Halsall says that’s healthy, even at the risk of her own re-election.
She is encouraging more people to nominate for the 29 November elections.
It’s not that hard, she says.
“No need to be an orator or a specialist, just a need to listen and to learn.”
The Municipal Association of Victoria’s information sessions for prospective candidates began last month. And the Australian Local Government Women’s Association has kicked off its 2008 campaign to encourage more women to stand.
It was on a summer day in 1997 that Cr Halsall made the decision.
The Cranbourne mother of a three-year-old girl knew nothing about local councils. Her own community consisted largely of young families, of play groups, toy libraries, and new mums’ clubs.
And her daily movements revolved around shopping centres and the pavements of her own neighbourhood.
She noticed that stay-at-home parents were frequent users of state and locally funded facilities, yet they seemed under-represented, even voiceless, in discussions about public policy.
“I filled out the $100 application form to nominate for the March election that year. Three months remained to polling day.”
The cost of her first cut-price campaign back then was $150, and she never expected to win.
“I just thought that if I wanted something done the best way was to try it myself.”
She won that 1997 election on the primary vote, having spent only a couple of hundred dollars on the campaign but many hours on door-knocking.
“If you can have a conversation with the next-door neighbour, you can be a councillor,” Cr Halsall says.
Now, 11 years later, Cr Halsall has just faced the roughest term of all. The reputation of Victoria’s largest municipality, Casey, plummeted because of unrest in the chamber this year, and twice police were called to restore order.
Cr Halsall has fought to keep the peace.
But how much of the unrest sticks in the minds of the voters will be evident at the November count.
