The Seat Is Only Borrowed

By Cr Namarca Corowa

Throughout my first term as a councillor, I've tried to use these articles to give people a glimpse into what I'm learning sitting on this side of the council chamber.

Lately I've been thinking about something my parents taught my siblings and me growing up. If somebody lent you something, you looked after it and tried to return it the way you found it, or better.

But the longer I'm a councillor, the more I think about this seat the same way. It's borrowed.

Before I was elected in 2024, I'd never been a councillor and had no local government experience. But I didn't come into council knowing nothing. I brought years of working with people and community, running an organisation, making decisions, making mistakes and learning along the way.

This role has reinforced that you don't know what you don't know. Something that looks simple can involve legislation, engineering, budgets, staffing, risk and things you might never see from the outside.

So I've learned to ask questions. Being new doesn't mean knowing nothing, and being experienced doesn't mean knowing everything.

Eventually though, after the reports and questions, you have to raise your hand. For me, conscience is an important plumbline. I want to understand the facts, costs, risks and consequences, then make a decision I genuinely believe is right for the region.

I think about that particularly when we're spending ratepayer money. I want Mackay to grow and invest in our future, but there needs to be value in what we're spending because there are real people behind those rate notices.

I've known firsthand what it's like when money is genuinely tight. There was a time when I was supporting a small family on one income. I've lined up at Centrelink and taken low-paying, hard manual labour jobs because I needed to make ends meet. I'm not ashamed of that; you do what you have to do to look after your family.

Council faces financial pressures too. Fuel, materials, staffing and maintaining infrastructure all cost money. Council can't solve the wider cost-of-living problem, but we do control the decisions that belong to us, and affordability should always be part of that consideration.

That's stewardship to me. Sometimes it means investing in something new. Sometimes it means looking after what we already have, questioning whether something still makes sense, or simply saying no.

I've never believed anybody automatically deserves a seat at the council table. We're here because our community gave us the opportunity to be here. And at the next election, every one of us will give our seat back for the community to decide.

When my time in this seat comes to an end, I'll ask myself: Did I listen and learn? Did I make the decisions I genuinely believed were right? And did I do my best to leave what I was given in better condition than I found it?

The seat was never mine. It was only borrowed.

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