Mayor of Shepparton-Mooroopna

I am a long term resident and business owner, with a passion for the region and a commitment to make a meaningful contribution.

Cr Dennis Patterson
Cr Dennis Patterson
I am a team player with a community focus. I want to see Greater Shepparton become a regional powerhouse of country Victoria. I recognise that Greater Shepparton has a lot of good things to offer, such as our strong community, and our natural environment.

Committee appointments

Greater Shepparton Aerodrome Advisory Committee
Murray Darling Association
RiverConnect Community Advisory Committee
Shepparton Liquor Licensing Accord
Shepparton Showgrounds Advisory Committee
Tatura Park Advisory Board
Contact details

Phone: 0427 935 282
Email: dennis.patterson@shepparton.vic.gov.au

Mayor of Gladstone-Tannum Sands

Today I announce my intention to nominate for the position of Mayor of the Gladstone Regional Council at the Local Government election on 19th March 2016.

I have thoroughly enjoyed my role of Deputy Mayor, but a cross section of the community is asking me to step up and nominate for Mayor.

I believe after almost sixteen years' experience in Local Government, five of those years serving as Deputy Mayor, it's time.

My campaign will be based on the issues that many residents have raised with me.

I won't be campaigning as part of any team, but if elected as Mayor, I will closely and co-operatively work with all Councillors as chosen by the people.

During my time as Councillor and Deputy Mayor, I have always had the best interests of the community at heart, and that will continue should I be elected Mayor of the Gladstone Regional Council.

Gladstone Mayor Matt Burnett.
Gladstone Mayor Matt Burnett.
Brenda Strong
I have been fortunate to have learnt much from the three Mayors with whom I have worked since my election to Council in 2000, and each of them has impacted on my goals for the region in some way.

However, I pledge to provide the Gladstone Region with the change of leadership many residents are now seeking.

Over recent times I have had many pass the comment to me that as a Council we should be doing better.

Those comments have been part of my decision to run for the position of Mayor, and I give my assurance that I am dedicated and determined to deliver for the whole of the Gladstone Region.

Before making my final decision, I sought advice from several long term local identities from every area of the Region.

Each of those people has closely watched the changes in the Region and I greatly value every helpful view and opinion.

I believe the people are best served by all candidates showing respect and value for each other's skills, knowledge and beliefs, and that's what my campaign will reflect.

I have never, and will never participate in a negative, nasty campaign.

Regardless of what may be thrown at me I will remain positive and focussed on my priority goal, which is always striving to better the Gladstone Region.

Mayor of Port Macquarie

Peter Edward Besseling (born 8 March 1970) is an Australian politician. Besseling is

the Mayor of Port Macquarie-Hastings Council, elected on 8 September 2012, as an independent candidate.Besseling served as Member for Port Macquarie between 2008 and 2011.

Prior to entering politics, he was a professional rugby union player.

As one of four children, Peter grew up with his family on a property north-west of Sydney along the Hawkesbury River.  His early working days were with an equipment rental company, moving from equipment service to management.

An introduction to rugby union led him to train with Sydney University, and a debut in First Grade that same year for the club.

In 1995, Peter and his wife Meaghan, moved west of Wauchope to Byabarra, in order to start a family and run a wholesale palm business.  A year later, rugby union turned professional and Peter took up a contract offer with the Brumbies in Canberra.

Having moved back to the Mid North Coast following the birth of his daughter, Peter assisted his rugby teammate Rob Oakeshott in his successful campaign to become the NSW Member for Port Macquarie, before again being lured south to run the Development Program for rugby union in Western Sydney, managing five development officers and playing for Penrith.

In 1999 and as captain of the Penrith team, Peter was selected for both NSW and for Australia A and capped off a wonderful year by winning the Ken Catchpole Medal for best Sydney premiership player. The following year, he was awarded the Australian Sports Medal for his services to rugby for his work with rugby development.

In 2001, Peter accepted a contract with IBM Japan and moved with his family to Chiba, just outside Tokyo, for three years.

Returning home, he teamed up once more with Rob Oakeshott to become his Senior Advisor and was then elected to the NSW Parliament in 2008 following a by-election for the vacant seat of Port Macquarie, which he held until 2011.

Peter was elected Mayor of Port Macquarie-Hastings in the 2012 Local Government Election.

Mayor of Tamworth

Councillor Maureen Gant has been sworn in as the new Mayor of Tamworth at the

Annual Council meeting held at Tamworth Town Hall.

Cllr Gant was appointed to the role by unanimous vote, after the opposition did not propose an alternative candidate. Opposition Group Leader Cllr Simon Peaple said: “We will not propose an alternative candidate for Mayor, due to the fact that we have enormous respect for Cllr Gant and for the way she conducts herself.”

Following the vote, Cllr Gant said: “Thank you for having bestowed on me the honour and privilege of serving as Mayor of Tamworth.”

She thanked outgoing Mayor, Cllr Richard Kingstone, for the ‘fantastic job’ he did during his year in office, and thanked Mayoress Lisa Kingstone for her ‘unstinting support’. She added: “You are a hard act to follow”.

Cllr Gant also announced that her charities during her year in office will be Tamworth Talking Newspapers and Tamworth Samaritans.

Outgoing Mayor Cllr Richard Kingstone said: He said: “The past year has just whizzed by and it has been such fantastic fun. It has been a huge privilege to be your Mayor and to meet so many wonderful Tamworth people. This is something that we will remember for the rest of our lives. At the same time, my wife Lisa and I have raised around £2,500 for our two chosen charities – St Giles Hospice and The Pathway Project.

“I've also presented more than 300 Be Tamworth badges, spoken in too many school assemblies to mention, hosted almost 100 different Tamworth-based voluntary groups to special 'thank you' receptions in the Town Hall, handed out flagpoles and flags to several primary and secondary schools and much, much more.

“We have been to some amazing places and met some amazing people. We knew that Tamworth was good, but we didn’t know it was that good. It is a brilliant place filled with amazing people.

“We hear claims that the town centre is dying, but in my year as Mayor, I have been asked to open nine small businesses in Tamworth. These are people who are prepared to invest in Tamworth and drive the town forward. Tamworth is not dying, but is evolving into something new and we need to encourage that.

“I have really been very lucky and would like to thank the people of Tamworth for their special support. None of this though would have been possible without the support of Derek, Roger and Lin who make up the civic team. They have looked after me and enabled the duties of the Mayor to run without a hitch.

“I would also like to thank Lisa, my wife. Without her acting as my conscience I would have made many mistakes. Tamworth is an amazing place full of the most delightful, funny and incredible people. I am proud to have been your Mayor."

Mayor of Orange

I have lived and worked in Orange for most of my life. I went to school here and have

children now bringing up their families here. I can’t imagine living anywhere else.

For good reason, every day new residents are calling Orange home.

Data released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics in April last year found that the
population of Orange was growing faster than almost any other country centre in the state and was ahead of many parts of Sydney.

Nine of the ten fastest growing local government areas outside the Sydney were in inland NSW and Orange was 3rd on that list.

The most recent Census data shows that Orange’s population grew by 7.7 % up from 35,339 in 2006 to 38,057 in 2011.

And the largest age group in Orange is the 0-4 year olds and anyone that has been to an event in Orange can attest to the happy stampede of young families, of toddlers and strollers.

I understand what attracts people to live here.

In Orange, I see the best PCYC in NSW with indoor courts, cutting-edge gymnastic equipment and more than 3000 members. I see a Regional Conservatorium with more than 900 talented young students finding their feet and the hitting right notes in the world of music. I see an indoor aquatic centre that delivers year round activities and I see more than 500 hectares of open recreation space and parks.

If there is a better example in Australia of a Victorian era park than Orange’s Cook Park then it would certainly be worth seeing.

In Orange, I see a growing education sector and a university with vision to expand. I see at a cost of $290 million plus the newest and best hospital in the State offering services to close to half of NSW.

I see a city at the heart of regional economy with a gross regional product of around $2 billion. I see wide, tree-lined streets and a buoyant retail sector. And I see Orange as a food and wine destination rivalling and surpassing longer established areas across the country. I see a diversity of industry and employment opportunities from mining to health and from winemaking to boiler making. I see four distinct seasons of which my highlights are the colours of Autumn and the vibrancy of Spring.

Mayor of Geraldton

Like Durack's Labor candidate, when Shane Van Styn was preselected by the

Nationals he was facing a virtual mission impossible to unseat Liberal Back Bencher Barry Haase from his very safe Liberal seat he had held for 15 years. Since then Mr Haase has announced his retirement and the Australian political landscape has been reshaped by the return of Prime Minister Rudd.
Mr Van Styn is a City of Greater Geraldton Councillor, business owner and accountant. In 2011 he was fined $15,000 and banned from any involvement in a licensed premises for three years after an employee died from acute alcohol toxicity in a Geraldton nightclub owned by Mr Van Styn.
Mr Van Styn is continuing something of a Nationals' tradition in saying he will vote against coalition policies where he believes they are at odds with the Durack electorate. He is calling for a moratorium on unconventional gas due to the potential for groundwater pollution from shale gas fracking. He's at odds with state Nationals in that he doesn't believe controversial plans to develop James Price Point north of Broome should proceed.
Mr Van Styn has a more conventional Nationals position around other development issues in the seat of Durack.

Mayor of Dubbo

While the year has started off positively for Dubbo with businesses generally

recording good Christmas sales numbers and events and projects for this year starting to roll out already, it is hard to think about long-term strategies and positive progress for Dubbo at the moment with the threat of a merger hanging over our heads. 
I encourage everyone to read the Merger Proposal document on the State Government Web site at www.councilboundaryreview.nsw.gov.au so you can gain more information on the proposal. I must admit to being incredibly disappointed with the quality of the document in my readings so far. The more I read the more inaccuracies I pick up. If one of my children was handing this in for a high school assignment I would be disappointed with the lack of attention to detail and just the plain inaccuracies in the document. Given that this will be the most important process in Dubbo’s history since our amalgamation with Talbragar Shire Council on 1 April 1980, I was hoping for a document of accurate and unbiased information to allow the people in our community to have a fair say on the proposal. 
We are sending off information to the State Government highlighting some of the mistakes in the document in the hope they will be corrected and a new copy placed on the Web site. To give you but a few examples, on Page 10 a table lists the number of dwellings in Wellington as 15,934. Anyone familiar with the area would know this is more than their total population! It is an amateur copy and paste error as that is the number of dwellings in Dubbo. On Page 7 the number of residents are listed in Dubbo and Wellington as 41,573 and 8,951 with the new combined population cited as 50,627. A ten-year-old could tell you that those numbers add up to 50,524. Only a basic error I admit but it points to the level of accuracy in the document. In fact, the Government is not even clear on the population of Wellington. On Page 7 the population is 8,951 and on Page 11 the population is listed in a table as 9,054. It becomes much worse when you start looking at philosophical errors. I quote from the document: “These communities [Dubbo and Wellington] have a common heritage in both agriculture and mining.” In my opinion, after “four years of extensive consultation, research and analysis” as quoted in the document, I would have hoped that someone would have worked out neither Wellington nor Dubbo have any mines (yet) and Dubbo only employs 2.8 per cent of our employees in agriculture compared to Wellington’s 21.7 per cent. 
For Dubbo ratepayers though, they should be most worried by the statement on Page 8. “The two councils are projecting divergent operating performance over the next 10 years. Dubbo City Council forecasts that its negative operating ratio will improve as it brings in more revenue than it spends, while Wellington Council projects that its expenses will grow faster than income over the same period.”
I would strongly encourage you to have a say – the submission form is open now at www.councilboundaryreview.nsw.gov.au and it is very easy to send in your submission. People power will hopefully win the day in this scenario.
On the positive side, we have the solid backing of our local Member and the Deputy Premier, Troy Grant. I have often said that it is fantastic having the Deputy Premier as the local Member and Troy does an excellent job undertaking both roles. At our time of need when we need someone sitting at the table with our best interests at heart, it is comforting to know he is backing Dubbo to stay as a standalone Council.

Mayor of Busselton

City of Busselton Councillors and Officers offer their support and well wishes to Mayor Ian Stubbs who announced today that he would not be standing for re-election in the forthcoming Local Government Council elections.

Deputy Grant Henley said that on both a professional and personal level he had learnt a great deal working alongside Mayor Stubbs.

“Ian’s involvement in Local Government goes back to 1968, but despite this amazing breadth of experience he never took anything for granted. He constantly questioned things and was always looking at new or better ways to serve the community. He stood by his decisions and respected the opinions of others; he’s been a really strong Mayor who provided great wisdom and guidance and was a great mentor for new Councillors. He will be missed at the table.”

CEO Mike Archer said that Mayor Stubbs has guided the City through many challenging but exciting periods. “Both as an organisation and a community we’ve benefited enormously from having a Mayor with so much knowledge of and experience with Local Government – that doesn’t happen very often.  We’ve achieved so many important milestones over the past few years and Mayor Stubbs has played an integral role in them all. 

He was passionate about the Shire pursuing City status. He was the driver behind the City’s strategic push to become the Events Capital of WA and he’s worked really hard to build important relationships with neighbouring Local Governments to advance the South West region.

He successfully advocated for Government grant funding to pursue major projects such as the Busselton and Dunsborough Foreshore redevelopments and, most recently, expansion of the Busselton Regional Airport.  He’s done all this with the view to growing jobs and opportunities here in the City of Busselton.

Perhaps, most importantly is the work Mayor Stubbs has done behind the scenes to instil stronger governance practices within the organisation and greater community engagement. This legacy will continue to serve the organisation and the community well into the future.”

Mayor Ian Stubbs was elected onto the then Busselton Shire Council in 2007. He was voted in as Shire President in 2009. He re-stood for Council in October 2011 and was re-elected and voted in unopposed by fellow Councillors for a second term as Shire President. He became the Municipality’s first Mayor when the Shire of Busselton became the City of Busselton in January 2012.