About me
I was born in Fremantle, obtained a Bachelor of Science at Curtin University, lived in Sydney for eight years and have been residing in Busselton for the last five years with my wife and two young daughters who are four and seven.
I am an IT professional and have many years' experience in executive leadership roles.
While living in Busselton I have started and operated two small businesses and understand the opportunities and challenges an amazing tourist destination presents for both residents and small businesses.
I now work part time in my IT consulting business and have the necessary time available to give back to the community and make a difference.
Motivation
One of my main areas of interest in the council is financial sustainability and currently I have some major concerns.
According to the mycouncil.wa.gov.au website, the City of Busselton adopted budgets for the financial years from 2017 to 2020 have seen rates rise at an average increase of 4.06 per cent, which is far greater than the average rate of inflation of 1 per cent or the average rate of wage inflation at 1.39 per cent.
This means that an increasing portion of the household budget is being spent on rates.
Busselton has also been one of the fastest growing regions in Western Australia this means that it also has one of the fastest growing number of new ratepayers in the state.
When you combine these two factors, you see that Busselton had an extraordinary average rate income growth of 7.35 per cent during these four years, which is the eighth highest of the 138 councils listed.
It would be reasonable to expect that with such high income growth, the City of Busselton would be in a strong financial position, however disappointingly this is not the case.
The Western Australian Treasury Corporation (WTC) developed The Financial Health Indicator (FHI), is a measurement of a local government's overall financial health.
It is calculated from the seven financial ratios that local governments are required to calculate annually. A FHI result of 70 and above indicates sound financial health.
During this time of extraordinary income growth, Busselton's FHI score has fallen from 75 to 49 to be one of the lowest in WA in 120th place of the 133 councils listed.
One of the reasons is that total operating expenditure is growing at an even faster pace than revenue.
The City of Busselton does not acknowledge this as an issue and instead contends that the FHI calculated by the WATC is not a true indicator of the city's financial health. However the FHI has been used for a number of years and the city has not appeared to have an issue with it in previous years when they had good FHI scores.
Recently the Council has authorised the city's chief executive to sign a contract not exceeding $38 million to build the Busselton performing arts and convention centre. This will only increase the rate at which operating expenditure grows and put more pressure on ratepayers with higher rate increases in the years to come.
Needs addressing
If I am elected to council my number one priority would be to instill good financial governance to ensure that expenditure does not grow faster than revenue and return the City of Busselton's FHI score to 70 or above.
In my spare time
I love the wonderful lifestyle, weather and community spirit that Busselton provides. I spend my spare time enjoying the outdoors either fishing, camping or visiting a local brewery or winery.