The Mayoral candidates continue to trickle in with local businessman Phil Batty announcing his nomination, joining Councillor Al Grundy, Councillor Jan Clifford, Acting Mayor Mike Brunker, Peter J Hood and Julie Hall in the race to be the next Whitsunday Mayor.
Phil Batty has been a staunch opponent of unsuitable high-rise development in Airlie Beach and believes Council needs a shake-up.
“It’s high time for a review not just of the internal operation of the WRC, but also to examine the direction in which we should be headed,” he said.
“Looking across all council operations and issues that have come for it in recent times, it seems things have slid away from the core values of local government, including planning diligence, and consistency in planning decisions by elected councillors,” he said.
Mr Batty is known for negotiating the first inter-state flight to the Whitsunday Coast Airport and has been lobbying for this to extend to international services for some time.
He was also a driving force behind bringing the first cruise ships to Whitsunday shores and the creator of the Flash-Mob Wedding in 2020 which received over a million views around the world.
Mayoral candidate Phil Batty
8 Weeks Until We Have A New Mayor
With the Australian Electoral Commission declaring the seat of Dawson on Wednesday this week, the process can finally begin to elect a new Mayor.
From the moment that Andrew Willcox officially became the Federal Member for Dawson and sent his letter of resignation to Whitsunday Regional Council, the clock starting ticking and the Electoral Commission of Queensland (ECQ) have exactly eight weeks to complete the process.
A new mayor has to be announced by Wednesday, August 11.
The tight timeline includes a period to call for nominations, time for the mayoral candidates to run a campaign, set a date for the election and count the votes.
The ECQ will also need to decide whether we will be using the preferential or first across the line voting system to determine who will be the new Mayor.
For the next eight weeks the ECQ will oversee everything, and the Council will have nothing to do with the process.
All three councillors that have nominated for mayor will continue in their roles during this time, there will not be a caretaker mode in place.
The new mayor will enter the role mid-term and will serve until the next local government election in early 2024.
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