I HAVE a passion for good public sector management and have worked in government as well as studied and researched what makes best practice and I have tried to put this into practice in my public sector roles. Given this interest I attended the Sunshine Coast Regional Council post-election meeting to hear the speeches from the successful candidates. I was interested particularly in the vision and values of councillors and what changes they would bring about.
After I entered the public gallery in the new council offices for my first visit I was greeted with a welcome handshake from Taylor Bunnag our new Division 8 Councillor and Maria Suarez the re-elected Division 9 Councillor. The gallery was pretty empty except for Taylor’s devoted parents and supporters, Wayne Parcell who was an unsuccessful mayoral candidate and some media people as far as I could ascertain. I was a little surprised by the poor turnout given my interest and the size of the Sunshine Coast with 350,000 people.
The new Mayor Rosanna Natoli chaired the meeting and introduced the councillors one by one after a welcome to country by Kabi Kabi Elder Aunty Helena Gulash. The speeches highlighted the gratitude for support by family and friends, their values and intentions for the future in leading the council.
It will be necessary for councillors to be positive with such a large reform agenda and a council culture that has failed to serve the people of the Sunshine Coast in many ways. There are challenges such as significant demand for infrastructure, council debt, the loss of talented council officers and the need for learning and development of the team. Still there have been positive achievements like the Biosphere and the Blue Heart project.
The new leadership with two women in the roles of Mayor and Deputy Mayor plus new energy like that of councillor Bunnag gives me hope and great expectations of a much-improved council performance.
Compassion, humility, trust, respect, kindness, creativity and wisdom would be some of the attributes needed in our councillors and public sector administration team. The new councillors have a distribution of these attributes in the team and are ready to lead.