BRENT LIVERMORE
BRENT Livermore was elected on to Snowy Valleys Council in 2021. Prior to that he was on Tumbarumba Council where he was the deputy mayor when the merger happened in 2016. He did not want to see the merger happen – was totally opposed to it – and that’s why he initially did not stand for SVC.
“It was a totally unjust situation the way it came about – there was no rhyme or reason for that merger to happen,” he said.
“Ian Chaffey and I decided to stand for election in 2021 because things were going downhill at such a pace. Our hope was to see if we could get in there and slow down the downslide. We made some inroads but not enough unfortunately.
“At this stage, I am still undecided as to whether or not I will stand again because of the position council is currently in. We have been put in a very difficult place by the Minister and I am not sure what to do. If I stand and am re-elected then how long will it last? Perhaps six months down the track and the Minister will make his decision. We could see ourselves deciding again which council to stand for.”
1. What skills, qualities or experience do you feel you need to be an effective councillor?
In this day and age obviously somebody coming in cold without some local government knowledge will find it hard. I have worked in local government for a number of years before I became a councillor, so you have to be able to come up to speed fairly quickly with local government finances and the way that operates; you need to develop the ability to read financial statements and know what they mean. That’s a technical point. All the ins and outs of how local government operates – that’s stuff you’ve got to learn.
As a councillor you don’t have to learn all the 120 pieces of legislation that goes into governing a council. But you need to understand the mosaic of how they fit together.
The other big thing for a councillor to be effective is you’ve got to be a good listener. I feel it is more important to be a good listener rather than a good talker and you need to understand your community. If you don’t understand your community and how your community kicks and not just about what people in the community want – there is a big difference between wants and needs. You need to understand the needs of the community even though you hear other wants come through because at the end of the day you have to make decisions about which way you go and what you can provide.
2. What are the biggest challenges facing our incoming council?
Importantly the financial situation – it is dire. So I just don’t know – there is no easy answer to that. The challenge is going to be able to really understand the finances and know what you can and can’t afford as a council. And the challenge, particularly for new ones coming onto council, there is going to be extraordinarily hard decisions to make. You’ve got to be prepared to cop the flack when making the tough decisions.
The library is just the start. Apart from that we have got the special rate variation – we still need to try and find at least $2-3 million dollars. If we can cut expenditure then that’s going to have to be an ongoing thing for at least another two to three years. There is a lot of tough decision to be made.
3. What’s the most rewarding part of becoming a councillor?
I have to go back to my time on Tumbarumba Council. At the end of our term on Tumbarumba we got some really big things achieved. In terms of infrastructure, we have the new sewerage treatment plant, a new water filtration plant, we rebuilt the Mannis dam; all those things were done on time and on-budget or under-budget. They were pretty major projects.
I used to chair what was the building committee which saw the aged accommodation built. We had the retirement village completed, we had money put aside to keep going with that. When the merger happened, the money disappeared, it came to an end, now nothing seems to happen. So, those sort of things, you look back at those and say, “yeah, we achieved quite a bit”. And that’s satisfying when you know you have provided those things for the community; put things in good shape for the community.
4. What would you say to someone considering becoming a councillor?
It is very hard this time because which council are you standing for? We are right in the middle – probably more at the end of this de-amalgamation process. The Minister refused it before the elections, so we are stuck in this limbo.
I don’t know what advice to give people to be quite honest other than the fact that this term is going to be difficult. So, fasten our seat belt because you are in for a difficult time.
