A Better Maitland

The Election Results

2008-09-16T02:29:00.000-07:00

The Mayoral Election results were announced today. As expected Peter Blackmore received over 50 per cent of the vote, but only just. I was feeling quite down yesterday as I knew we had worked so hard, our little team, but with such a short lead time and no party behind me, it was difficult to compete.

I guess you have to measure the success of our campaign against the little achievements, the decisions to support the community and consult, to listen and to start to build a picture of what people want to achieve in Maitland.

I am very motivated to continue to work in public life, and the major feedback has been that people did not know who we were and what we stood for, which was a valid statement. We did not have enough time or resources to tell them.

I must say how pleased and honoured I was to have Lance Murray on my side. He staffed the Pre-poll booth each day and was a tireless and positive influence on our campaign. I thank him every day for the work he put into the campaign.

I will be working to start and enhance my relationship with the electorate. I think the people of Maitland deserve someone who will genuinely push ahead with the city, but not lose sight of them and their needs.

Someone asked me during the campaign, when are they going to stop measuring the success and growth of our city in the number of buildings we create, and look at the kind of community we are creating? I think alot of the crime and disconnectedness of our community stems from this and we need to act quickly to try and start a community consultation that exists beyond the Council and their friends, and into the very heart of Maitland and its people.

Mixed Motivations and Media

2008-09-04T14:52:00.000-07:00

I have finally bee misquoted in the media , as I don't believe that my cuppas were reported as an anti-women thing, I think it was from entrenched Councillors and/or their supporters. I was pretty disappointed about this as I had thought I had been very clear when asked if I thought it was an anti-woman sabatoge, that I didn't think so, although I could understand why Councillor Woods would think so as she is already a sitting councillor.

I have been attacked by Councillors Proctor and Geoghan every day in the papers at some level or another, and every time Bob Geoghan sees me he has a seriously hard look at what I am doing so he can start criticising me. You should have seen him checking out the authorisations on my t-shirt (which I didn't need to have, but just did to cover my bases).

Peter Blackmore has said he was worried that he would not get any preferences from anyone, and carrying on with a whole lot of rubbish about how he didn't know what he would do as he was getting married in December and he was nervous about not getting elected.

He has been an elected representative of Maitland since 1981 including 8 years on a full Parliamentary Salary as the Member of Maitland. Being in politics should not be about getting an income, it should be about serving the people in your community.

I called up the radio station and clarified his position about him having no preference deals on the table, telling ABC Radio that I had asked for his preferences and he had said no as he would be elected first and his would not be distributed, and in any case he didn't need preferences last time as he won with over 50% of the vote.

it was very much at odds with his statements earlier in the morning.

I also got the opportunity to say that Steve Proctor had asked me to run independent with him, and to ask him what was the difference between me running on my own and running with the Blackmore Independents = basically that I had received no developer contributions.

It is good to be able to clarify things!

A win for Community Consultation

2008-09-02T20:11:00.000-07:00

Good day today - we had pre polling again and ended up doing a few media interviews regarding the Community Cuppas.

I imagine that those who put in a complaint about my morning teas would have thought they would have put paid to my chance to consult with the community, however it is fine to have the morning teas, as long as I charge for them.

I decided was daffodil yesterday to donate the money to the Cancer Council. I could put it to fundraising for my campaign, but at the end of the day, it is not about me, it is about doing something for the community.

I have had no donations from developers (or anyone else for that matter), so thing are tight, but at least I know that I will not be answerable to anyone at the end of this other than the voters!

End of the First Day Pre- Polling

2008-09-01T18:12:00.000-07:00

Well, it was a big day today - I found out that my story about the Cups of Coffees made the Maitland Mercury and I was also in the social pages of the Newcastle Herald as I attended BPW's 55th Anniversary Dinner last week, so that was nice.

A friend and I got to Town Hall for Pre-Polling before it opened and set up the tables. I met with some of the candidates, and this was interesting as there was quite a bit of political debate going on between the candidates.

It was a busy day as we are nominating for the NSW Tourism Awards in two categories this year - one in Major Tour and Transport Operator and one in Excellence in Sustainable Tourism and it was like any busy Monday, as well as calls from the Newcastle Herald and the radio station 2HD about the cup of tea thing.

I went into work around morning tea time, and told the team that they would all have to make their own cups of tea and coffee as they mainly live in Maitland LGA and if I provided tea and coffee it might be seen as a bribe to vote for them - I guess you have to laugh! The only constructive thing about the whole tea and coffee thing was that I decided that I would donate my cups of coffee and tea revenue to Breast and Ovarian Cancer as it was Daffodil Day today!

Councillor Proctor told me it was wrong that I didn't stand on the ALP party ticket again, just before some people came up and asked for a how-to-vote from me because they knew me from my workplace role at Northern Highland Travel - it really reinforced that I am known in the community for a variety of roles and positions and that Labor is just one of them.

The most ironic thing about that is Steve asked me to stand with him several months ago. I still can't work out how it would have been okay for me to run as an independent in North Ward on his ticket but not in East Ward (where I live) on my own ticket?

I picked up some of my corflutes from the printer - really interesting about how many of the candidates went elsewhere to get their material printed outside of the Maitland Local Government Area. I think it is a poor symbol of the support you show for your community if you get things printed out of area. I noticed Labor and my teams used local printers in Maitland, whilst most of the other Liberals and Independents used printers from Newcastle and even further afield.

I got a letter from the Maitland Basketball Association which I answered today, so hopefully they will come to my community meetings and I can get to know some of them better.

A good day.

Happy Daffodil Day and Another Reason Why we Need Cheaper and More MRI Machines

2008-09-01T06:00:00.000-07:00

I have the BRCA 2 Gene, the Breast Cancer gene which causes breast cancer and is also linked with ovarian cancer.

Before my sister got diagnosed with breast cancer at the age of 28 two years ago I had never met anyone with this gene, and then eventually I found out I had it.

Breast tumours in younger women are harder to pick up as the breast tissue is more dense and mammograms and ultrasounds are often not effective in this area.

After I found out about my gene status, I was advised that a quick way to reduce the risk of breast and ovarian cancer caused by the gene was to have a bilateral salpingo oopherectomy (or total hysterectomy where they remove the ovaries as well). This would reduce the Ovarian cancer risk to about 1-3 per cent which is in line with the general population and half the increased risk of breast cancer to about 23% (the average for women without the gene is 9%).

I have been doing the health thing too, increasing my exercise and reducing alcohol (which are both implicated in cancers) and overall reduce fat. Slowly it is working (although I must say after you hit menopause, it is pretty hard to stop the weight gain, even if you are only 37!). The other thing I have been doing is getting screening done and there are some post menopausal tests they can do for women at risk of ovarian cancer which are quite good, but I still need some testing for breast cancer.

My breast specialists (I won't say surgeon because that is not my hope for our relationship), told me that the best way to screen is a new MRI technique. It is quite expensive however and costs about $500 to $700. There are also issues with training in the correct scanning and interpretation techniques. My doctor told me that they had been working on this for about ten years in Sydney and the machine component that is coming up to the Hunter (or may already be here, I am only due for my screen now), will be in use as soon as the training is completed.

My sister emailed me the other day to say that she had seen an interview with Christina Applegate, the Hollywood Star who was recently diagnosed with breast cancer, she also had one of the Breast Cancer Genes. Her cancer was diagnosed early through MRI as her mother had suffered from the disease.

I am so pleased that there are days like Daffodil Day. I use it as my annual reminder to do something for myself (get my screening done) and something for others - renew my donations, buy a daffodil, and promote this cause.

It is really scary finding out whether that lump is something to worry about, but it is even scarier if you find out later that it was.

Rotary Long Lunch at Eelah

2008-08-31T18:28:00.000-07:00

What a great day!

I arrived just after 12 as I was caught up campaigning, and met with some of the Rotarians from the Sunrise Rotary Club of Maitland. It was lovely to see them again, as I spoke at one of their meetings a few months ago, and always it was an inspiring way to see a range of products from all around the Hunter, showcased by the very kind sponsors of the event.

This year the focus of the Long Lunch was Survivor Boxes, which cost about $1,200 each and contain enough supplies to keep a family of ten people going for about 6 months when a natural disaster or international emergency occurs.

It was a great opportunity to find out what excellent work Rotary is doing in the international community, and they raised an enormous amount of money for the boxes, going well above their target of 10 boxes (I think in the end the final number was 18!). The Auction was well supported, as were the raffles, with a huge range of prizes on offer, and people keen to dig deep to help provide funds to help others in need.

Congratulations to all the Rotarians who helped put on a great day!

Storm in a Tea Cup - or the end of Community Consultation?

2008-08-29T21:05:00.000-07:00

As a new candidate, I have decided that the best way to represent our local community is to host a series of "Community Cuppas" at a variety of community venues across Maitland over the next two weeks.

My invitation to a "Community Cuppa" is to give people the opportunity to speak to someone directly who wants to represent their views in Local Government. Unlike other candidates I have put forward a program of events to gain feedback from the local community, rather than putting forward a whole lot of one-hit-wonder policies simply to try and get a media grab. I am not offering people a cup of tea for voting for me, and I am sure I will have people attend who will not vote for me, but at least I can hear their views and perhaps find some common issues we can put forward together to make a Better Maitland.

An individual lodged a complaint with the Returning Officer to say that giving people a cup of tea when you ask for their views on community issues could be construed as a treat or a bribe to make them vote for you. Whoever lodged that complaint has a contemptible view of our local community and puts a very low value on community opinions. What kind of a Councillor will they be if they value the thoughts and ideas of our community so poorly?

I was advised of this complaint late this afternoon, and disagree with it. I will be seeking other advice prior to the events, however at the moment I face a possible fine of $1,000 or 3 years in jail if I give people who attend my Community Cuppas a cup of tea, or coffee or a biscuit! This raises all sorts of issues for democracy, how can elected representatives and candidates engage with the community if you can't meet with them and offer them a simple cup of tea for giving you their value time and opinions? What has happened to common courtesy?

The Community Cuppas have been advertised and I intend to proceed, but now, to let people give me their "two cents worth", I may have to charge them if they have a Cuppa! I guess I could use the events as a fundraiser! The only good news is that I can still hold the events and it is not so bad to have a "Community Cuppa" without the a Cup of Tea or Coffee, because after all, it really is all about "Community".

At least the people of Maitland will know their views are valuable to me and that is the most important thing.

A Letter to the Editor - I am Jenny Aitchison.

2008-08-28T23:38:00.000-07:00

Dear Editor
If “used to be Independent now Liberal” Councillor Geoghan wants to know who I will caucus with in Council if Elected on 13 September, he can just ask me. He has not bothered to discuss preferences with me, a great snub, considering we have in the past had cordial discussions at Maitland community events.

I have never nominated myself as an independent (read the ballot paper, Bob) and if I am elected as Mayor, the second candidate on the Better Maitland Team, Lisa Webb could be elected to East Ward. Neither she or Leah Cox are members of the ALP.

And unlike Bob Geoghan and all the other “used to be Liberal and/or used to be Independents” I will have no pecuniary or non pecuniary conflicts of interest to declare when development issues arise on Council other than those that may relate to my own business, in which case I will leave the chamber and not seek to influence other councillors.

I am a member of a vast range of local community groups including BPW Maitland, the Women’s Network Hunter, the Maitland Regional Art Gallery, and the Maitland Business Chamber. For those wishing to find out more about me please go to my web site: http://www.jennyformayor.dyndns.org/ or http://www.bettermaitlandteam.dyndns.org/.

In all of my roles in life and community and business, I act in the interests of the people I represent and in the Council Elections I will act in the interests of our community, whether that is as Councillor in East Ward or Mayor of Maitland.
Jenny Aitchison
Candidate for Councillor, East Ward
Candidate for Mayor, Maitland

The New Survivor Series

2008-08-26T23:36:00.000-07:00

Here is a bit of fun for those who are getting a bit sick of all the seriousness of campaigning. My mum sent me this one on the email.

THE NEXT SURVIVOR SERIES Six married men will be dropped on an island with one car and 3 kids each for six weeks. Each kid will play two sports and either take music or dance classes. There is no fast food. Each man must take care of his 3 kids; keep his assigned house clean; correct all homework; and complete science projects; cook; do laundry; and pay a list of 'pretend' bills with not enough money.

In addition, each man will have to budget in money for groceries each week. Each man must remember the birthdays of all their friends and relatives , and send cards out on time--no emailing. Each man must also take each child to a doctor's appointment , a dentist appointment and a haircut appointment . He must make one unscheduled and inconvenient visit per child to the Emergency Dept of Hospital. He must also make cookies or cupcakes for a social function. Each man will be responsible for decorating his own assigned house, planting flowers outside and keeping it presentable at all times.

The men will only have access to television when the kids are asleep and all chores are done. The men must shave their legs , wear makeup daily, adorn himself with jewelry, wear uncomfortable yet stylish shoes , keep fingernails polished and eyebrows groomed . During one of the six weeks, the men will have to endure severe abdominal cramps, back aches, and have extreme, unexplained mood swings but never once complain or slow down from other duties. They must attend weekly school meetings, church, and find time at least once to spend the afternoon at the park or a similar setting. They will need to read a book to the kids each night and in the morning, feed them, dress them, brush their teeth and comb their hair by 7:00 am.

A test will be given at the end of the six weeks, and each father will be required to know all of the following information: each child's birthday, height, weight, shoe size, clothes size and doctor's name. Also the child's weight at birth, length, time of birth, and length of labor, each child's favorite color, middle name, favorite snack, favorite song, favorite drink, favorite toy, biggest fear and what they want to be when they grow up.

The kids vote them off the island based on performance. The last man wins only if...he still has enough energy to be intimate with his spouse at a moment's notice. If the last man does win, he can play the game over and over and over again for the next 18-25 years eventually earning the right To be called Mother!

After you get done laughing, send this to as many females as you think will get a kick out of it and as many men as you think can handle it. Just don't send it back to me.... I'm going to bed.

Daytime Community Meeting Facilities in Metford

2008-08-25T22:39:00.000-07:00

I was on the phone today trying to finalise my community cuppas program and trying to find somewhere to meet in Metford. I was surprised to learn that the Community Centre in Metford is not available in the daytime, only after 6pm at night because the staff are working there, and the cost of hiring the Baptist Hall was quite high if you only had a small number of attendees. I thought of Mindaribba as the facilities are quite good there, but was not able to get hold of anyone this morning, I will try again tomorrow, and I was really looking for a meeting place on the other side of Metford, as Mindaribba is relatively close to Bruce Street Community Hall and Greenhills where I am holding some of my other meetings.

For my purposes it doesn't matter really if I can have a night meeting, as it gives me a broader range of times to meet with people who might work during the day, however I wonder how many other groups could meet there during the day and if this would have a postive impact on the community. When I went to Shamrock Hill Community Centre it was positively bustling with activity, learning to paint, or other crafts, however none of this would be possible at Metford Community Hall.

With so much disconnection in modern life, it is important to have community spaces that are available for the community to use, and it is important that community life doesn't become something that happens after work, or the social exclusion of people without cars who are not in Monday to Friday work becomes extreme.

How to Vote Registration

2008-08-25T17:39:00.000-07:00

Lots of Fun with this today, I have finally finished the printing requirements for my campaign. I have to send through final proofs tomorrow, but registration with the Elections NSW team should be complete by then. At least I am not going to have this finalised in the last minute.

It was interesting that the Returning Officer, Kevin Short, noted that they don't stop people from being able to take civil action against someone else if they approve the material, as they only check for correctness of voting procedures rather than legality. I told him that I was not thinking of criticising anyone, rather just trying to show there can be a better way!

It's funny, but I am not really in favour of watching behind me to see what my competitors are doing, whether in the elections, or in business, I try to keep my eyes in front to see the future and what could be ahead to try and improve.

I hate negativity. There is nothing worse - "you can't do that" - four little words which limit our achievements. I say: "Just try and see, you're dead a long time." In my experience you have to run your own race because your journey will be so different to those of the others around you.

An Invitation to a Better Maitland - Community Cuppas

2008-08-25T06:31:00.000-07:00

I believe in democracy, and giving people the opportunity to engage with their decision makers. As part of this process I put together a timetable of opportunities to meet with Maitland people, trying to vary times and locations and days of the week.

My program of "Community Cuppas" is below.

Bruce Street Community Hall
Wednesday 3 Sept 10am-11.30am
Pizza Hut Restaurant Green Hills
Thursday 4 Sept 9am-10.30am
Rutherford Community Centre, Elphick Room
Saturday 6 September 10am-11.30am
Maitland Senior Citizens Hall
Sunday 7 Sept 10.30am-12pm
Metford Community Hall
Monday 8 Sept 6pm-7.30pm
Shamrock Hill Multipurpose Centre
Tuesday 9 Sept 2pm-3.30pm
Pat Hughes Community Centre Thornton
Wednesday 10 Sept 2pm-3.30pm

I invite you to be part of the change to make a Better Maitland. I hope you will join me at one of these events. For more information email: jennyformayor@gmail.com

Carrie's Place Concert - Choir of No More Knocks

2008-08-24T07:13:00.000-07:00

How could you fail to be impressed? A dozen Indian dancers, in full regalia, a Samoan dance group, and some Belly Dancers, Choirs jamming on issues of self esteem, positive action and community, and 12 year old Justice, singing so beautifully, her solo rendition of Christine Aguilera's Reflections. It was a lovely night in the Hunter. The night started at 7pm when we got to the Great Hall at University of Newcastle and collected our tickets.

I bought some tickets in the raffle (didn't win) and bought a really great tshirt and then we had a cappucino (they'd even had the foresight to get the Tafe to set up some snack stalls and had one of those cappucinos in the back of a car). This was one of the best nights - the mingling, getting to speak to people in our local community and affirm our commitment to a community where abuse and violence do not have a place.

Lisa Webb, Julie Want and I went along, and took some of our kids with us as the girls were particularly interested in choirs. We had the opportunity to have a chat on the drive in and it was a great opportunity to swap ideas and think of ideas. Lisa put forward the idea of a Woman's Wellness Centre in Maitland, to give women who may be returning to the workforce the opportunity to prepare themselves for return to work and back in the community. It got me thinking about things like Family Planning Clinics which we don't have in Maitland, or some kind of really strong Women's Health Unit.

There is a real need for work such as Carrie's Place and the stories the women told over the microphone in between sets showed the absolutely positive work this centre is doing. It was so easy to be inspired seeing women with real courage in front of us. It is such an excellent idea and one that everyone involved should take real pride in being part of. There was a few tears as people told their stories, but lots of laughter and joy as they sang songs, or drummed an African beat. They looked as if they had found something special in their lives and for a few minutes at a time we were able to share that space with them.

Jonathon Welch was great too, and really played tribute to Carrie's Place. I think the final number where the women sang of their strength and the men responded with an affirmation was very powerful. At times it must be hard to be a man in a space where women are telling such heartbreaking stories of men who have abused them. The singing gives an avenue for men to express their pride and appreciation of these women.

I thought a bit more about this later on in the night on the way home, and thought about the large rates of domestic violence and the extreme tragedies with murders and attempted murders that we read about in the paper, or perhaps know someone. The figure are so huge, it is hard to know where to begin, and there are so many different ways that women can gather the strength to leave a destructive relationship, but none of them are easy.

I got to thinking that sometimes you need the softer pathways to change. Some people are given the opportunity to escape because their situation is so powerfully wrong that it becomes a refuge matter, however in many cases of domestic violence, the abuse is sinister and incremental, never really enough to seem cruel, until on reflection the victim is left without the self belief and confidence to escape.

A woman's wellness centre, a focused women's health centre would provide that checking point, a place where early signs of abuse can be seen and identified and protective behaviours implemented, before the crisis intervention is required. One of the things that can be hard in abusive situations is identifying the early signs for yourself. If women can go somewhere where they feel safe, cared for and confident, this might enable us to help them earlier, and identify issues for them.

I was glad to be able to support the event, and hope to do a lot more to help out in the future.

Shopping Tips #323

2008-08-24T06:10:00.000-07:00

Note to self: when campaigning and you are supposed to be wandering around shopping malls looking friendly and approachable, you probably shouldn't start buying clothes for your kids. It quickly morphs into a little look in Rockmans, and then oops - a new suit seems to fit okay...tragic.

Rang my sister and parents yesterday and asked if they were coming to Maitland to help out on polling day. My sister is not interested, but Mum seems promising. Dad was not as enthusiastic, but I will talk him around. I did remind him that Maxine's Mckew's Mum was with her on election night and I didn't see John Howard's parents around.

A Busy Week (or 10 days!)

2008-08-23T15:41:00.000-07:00

Things have been very busy over the last week or so!

I have been organising our campaign and working with Printers, Website Developers and Friends to develop how to vote material and invitations to our "community cuppas". I have also been monitoring the media and writing letters to the editor to try and get my views and opinions across, and responding to media calls.

Instead of doing a blow by blow account I thought it might be more interesting to see what I am doing by topics.

Community Cuppas - an Invitation to a Better Maitland.
I know how inconvenient door knockers can be, coming in on the weekend, interrupting family time, however I want to hear what you want from your council, and I want to meet you! I will try to do some door knocking, but I decided it would be a better idea to invite people to meet with us over a cup of coffee or morning tea at their local community centre or other venue. I will try to make some of them weekend times so that I can meet with people who work as well.

Trying to book community space has been a good exercise in seeing exactly how much goes on behind the scenes in our community. Trying to get a morning tea in Ashtonfield at the Shamrock Hill Community Centre before the election was too hard, so I have gone with an afternoon tea, and I was unable to hear back from the Church of Christ so Robert asked Pizza Hut at Green Hills and they said they would be able to open for us one morning before they open up for their service. I am hoping to get our invitations out as soon as possible, but in any case, these are the confirmed events :

Bruce Street Community Hall
Wednesday 3 Sept 10am-11.30am
Pizza Hut Restaurant Green Hills
Thursday 4 Sept 9am-10.30am
Shamrock Hill Multipurpose Centre
Tuesday 9 Sept 2pm-3.30pm

I am hoping to finalise my other bookings on Monday for:

Metford Community Hall
Maitland Senior Citizens Hall
Pat Hughes Community Centre Thornton
Rutherford Community Centre

Online and Connected
Kerrie Ptolemy from Ptolemy consulting has been working on upgrading my Mayor Campaign Website and also the Better Maitland Team website. It is looking great and we have a few more things to add - I want to scan in some media clips and add my media releases but it will take a bit of time! I have also started this blog, and hoping to do it more often.

Larger than Life
I have got a billboard space booked for one of the billboards on the New England Highway. I was a bit reluctant to do this, as it is going to be a VERY big photo of me, but I guess it is all about profile! Watch out for it - coming soon!

Out and About
I have been trying to attend as many events as possible, including the Carrie's Place night with Jonathon Welch last night at the University of Newcastle, the Maitland Business Chamber's Breakfast meeting with Kyle Loades, Hunter Director of NRMA, and Where to Now? a dinner with Hilton Grugeon. I will try to do a bit of a report on some of these events in my next blog!

Next week is going to be quite busy, with the 55th Anniversary Dinner for BPW on Tuesday night and a Forum on Paid Maternity Leave in Newcastle on Thursday.

Life Goes On
I am just about to head up to the shops for some much needed shopping. I had a load of fire wood delivered yesterday morning and the kids and I spent much of the day moving it off the drive around to the other side of the house so that when Robert gets back from touring tomorrow he has a nice surpise - a few sore muscles later I am so glad I started back at the gym. The kids have been helping me out with developing posters. They are both trying to get people to "vot 1 for Jenny for mair". It is nice to have their support!

Who is an Independent?

2008-08-21T08:00:00.000-07:00

I was interested to read in the Maitland Mercury discussing who I am and what I represent in my bid to become a Councillor in Maitland. It is extremely satisfying to see existing councillors such as Bob Geoghan start to question their own motives for and approaches to running for local Government. Too many of the existing councillors appear to be very “comfortable and relaxed” in their roles, and believing that they have an inalienable right to be on Council, which they don’t!

To clarify my position, I have held a number of positions in a wide variety of organisations in the last twenty years, from a retail shop assistant, a weight loss counsellor with Jenny Craig, a Commonwealth public servant, a Parliamentary adviser, an employee of a small business, a travel agent, a restaurant manager and waitress, to a small business owner and operator. I have been a member of different unions and am a proud member of the ALP. I am a member of Maitland Business & Professional Women, the Australian Institute of Company Directors, the Women’s Network Hunter, the Maitland Regional Art Gallery and the Maitland Business Chamber.

I am also involved in the Bus and Coach Industry, and in the last couple of years I have been a member of the National Trust, and the Hunter Valley Society for Native Plants and the Shamrock Hill Day Care Centre P&C committee. I have studied at tafe and university, been a tenant and a landlord and a mother, a daughter and sister. Yes, I am not easy to pigeon hole and I do have a number of different and strategic perspectives on the issues that face our community.

In all of my roles in life and community and business, I act in the interests of those people whom I represent and in the Council Elections I will act in the interests of all members of our community. I am not pro or anti-development, I am in favour of being strategic and hard working to make a Better Maitland

I specifically did not nominate myself as an independent on my bid for Councillor or for Mayor, as I felt that it would confuse people in Maitland who have grown to accept that the majority of the Independents in our council have been or are Liberal Party Members. In fact, it is a matter of public information that I nominated as a member of the Labor Team early on in the nomination process.

This is in stark contrast to Bob Geoghan who has run for the last two terms of Council as an Independent, despite his membership of the Liberal Party. Exactly what right does he have to be disgruntled now? I also note that when the Liberals announced their campaign for council, they said they did not need to run a Liberal Candidate for Mayor as they were well represented by the former Liberal State Member for Maitland, Mr Peter Blackmore.

I am not receiving any financial assistance from Labor and ironically some of the Labor members think I have “sold out” by not running on the Labor ticket. The truth is that so many members of our community, as well as politicians from all sides of politics, have asked me to run for Council in the last three years, I felt an obligation to do so. Indeed, it is ironic that during the time that I was considering running as an independent, the Mayor came up to me at a function and said it was a great pity that I was not running in a “winnable position” as I should be on the Council, and Councillor Proctor phoned me several months ago and asked me to be a candidate on his ticket in North Ward.

I have been inspired by many more people in the last few days offering their support to me, again from many different quarters. These people have seen my strength of character, commitment to Maitland and genuine interest in improving the lifestyle of everyone in our community. All understood my skills, abilities and motivations are of the highest order and I have a strong commitment to be a great Councillor or Mayor if I am elected.

I have enormous respect for Ray Fairweather as a local Councillor, as he is a walking encyclopaedia of information on the history of Maitland and our local community. With 25% of the existing councillors leaving the role this time, it is important that someone with good corporate knowledge, who is an active contributor, stays on and that is very much the case with Ray. I was therefore happy for him to be number 1 on the ALP ticket, but the reality of East Ward, with an Liberal who used to be an Independent, and Independent who used to be a Liberal, and an Independent who supports a Mayor who used to be a Liberal, meant I thought there was a need for balance in the Ward and new approaches to campaigning were needed.

As to who I am giving my preferences to, it was no contest: both Henry Meskauskas and Ray Fairweather were the first to ask for my preferences, fair and square, and discussions with other candidates have been brief but noncommittal at this stage. I am likely to preference to ALP, to the Greens and then Peter Garnham, who I have worked with on the Maitland Tourism Advisory group in the last 8 years, and know to be a hard worker. Bob Geoghan and Leesa Morris have not asked me for preferences.

I thought it was interesting that the Mercury’s article highlighted Leesa Morris, who was a member of the Liberal Party and who handed out how-to-vote cards at Metford for Bob Geoghan at the State Government elections last year. She has stated that she will be giving preferences to other Independents. I am constant in who I am giving my preferences to, what has Bob done to lose Leesa’s vote?

Why Blog?

2008-08-16T07:23:00.000-07:00

I decided to do a blog early on in my campaign as I have been interested in politics all my life, and having worked in and around it, I find it incredible at times that people's expectations of the process and the people involved can be so at odds with what is the reality.

I also thought as President of the Women's Network Hunter NSW it would be a useful record after the rough and tumble of campaigning is over as a way of remembering how it felt at the time and perhaps to inspire someone to run for council in the future.

I also think that people deserve the opportunity to find out more about their elected representatives. There is the old media release, or ten second grab, but it doesn't really tell you why you thought that way, or why you support one course of action over another.

I used to do alot of writing when I was younger, and even though these days I tend to write more travel brochures than tomes of prose, I still aspire to make sense of the day through the written way.

Finally, I feel an obligation to engage with those people who do not really engage with politics. Who don't read newspapers, but somehow manage to know everything that is going on in the world. I guess that is the real test of news - would you hear about it even if you didn't read the paper or watch tv?

Why did the Children Cross the Road? Pedestrian Crossings!

2008-08-15T10:05:00.000-07:00

I totally support the introduction of more pedestrian crossings in Maitland. I read the letters to the editor in the Mercury this morning and I wholeheartedly agree that there should be more done about pedestrian crossings across the city. Knowing the issues in East Ward, I thought it would be helpful to give a concrete incident to try and give the call for Pedestrian crossings across the city some momentum. I live in the Avalon Estate at Thornton and there are over 15 students who need to catch the bus to school each day, however they all have to cross the New England Driveway near the Avalon Estate to catch the bus in the morning.

With many other parents in the Estate, I successfully lobbied Hunter Valley Buses to have Council install a bus stop near the estate, however most parents have to drive their children across four lanes of traffic in order to get them to the bus stop in the morning as it is often congested during peak times. The other morning, our babysitter offered to walk the children across the road, as I had an early meeting in Sydney. The babysitter lives in the estate and walks across by herself quite frequently to catch the train into Newcastle, we agreed it would be all right. She got there in plenty of time, and the children were able to catch the bus. However coming back, the peak traffic had arrived and was so congested that the babysitter ended up calling her parents to come and pick her up in a car, as she could not walk back across the road safely.

Wiith congestion at the Thornton lights, we often have motorists trying to make a third lane coming up behind us and beeping the horn to get our car to move out of their way! I am very pleased that the Hunter Valley Bus Company installed a bus stop there to show people it was really a bus stop not a third traffic lane!

In 1998 John Price, the Former Member for Maitland referred in an urgency Debate in the NSW Parliament, a number of deaths that had occured around the vicinity of the traffic lights at Thornton and Weakleys Drive. I have heard that a child was killed trying the cross the road to catch a bus or train about 15 years ago.

During the construction of the flyover, the traffic is limited to 60km per hour through this area, however this is only policed sporadically. When the roadworks are completed, I am advised that the RTA intends to close the Right Hand Turn from the Avalon Estate into the rest of Thornton, effectively landlocking the estate, as only left hand turns will be allowed, with people intending to do U turns at the Heritage Gardens area. During the community consultations which were held by the RTA a few years ago, I and other existing Avalon Estate residents lobbied to ensure that this option was not adopted.

The RTA representatives said it was not the only option they would explore, however nothing else is being put forward in the meantime. When the Avalon Estate Development Application was up for consideration by Maitland City Council, again a stop on the right hand turn was muted in the development application. I addressed the Council during Community Access to show that this would create significant hardship for the existing and new residents as it was the only access road to the site. The left hand turn is already difficult enough as visibilty at the corner is extremely poor to the right hand side, and it is sometimes easier to get across the road to turn right than to turn left in front of the traffic.

The RTA put a traffic light in at the intersection of the New England Highway and South Seas Drive after a fatal accident there, and there has already been a major accident at the Avalon Estate that involved the Westpac Rescue Helicopter anout two years ago. The problem for residents at the Avalon Estate is that there is only one road to access the estate, whereas residents of South Seas Drive could go through to Greenhills to use the lights there to come out of the estate. I have already raised with the Member for Hunter, the Hon Joel Fitzgibbon, MP, and the State Member for Maitland, Mr Frank Terenzini, my concerns about this intersection. Once the traffic speed limit is increased back up to 90km per hour when the road works are completed, we will have even more problems getting out of the estate in cars, but more importanly, getting our children safely to the bus stop. I have suggested at the very least a pedestrian traffic light or overpass be built across the highway.

This would enable people to walk their children across the highway in order to catch buses to school. In a time when we are trying to conserve fuel, encouraging children to walk to school or the bus stop, and parents are doing the right thing, sending their kids to school in buses rather than using cars, all levels of government should be supporting this. The interruptions to traffic would be minimal, as on many days the traffic is banked up to the Maitland Tafe Campus already during the peak time, so a designated pedestrian crossing during peak times would not create any additional traffic.

Once the bypass is completed, hopefully this traffic congestion will be reduced, and a pedestrian crossing will perhaps cost motorists a couple of minutes. However, what is the alternative? How many children will have to be critically killed to justify a little more time for motorists to get to work in the morning? Will we have to have a fatal accident at the intersection (as they did at South Seas Drive) before anything is done?

The Media has started!

2008-08-13T20:06:00.000-07:00

Woke up this morning to Aaron Kearney from ABC radio doing the daily "Agenda" wrap up of local media. Realised that we made the front page with our bid for Council. Robert got up and got the Maitland Mercury and we read it quickly. The kids were happy to see it in there too! I have been trying to organise our election material today, so that has been busy.

I have been trying to catch up with friends and let them know what I am doing which has been hard as I have been so busy!

Well, I have nominated! - 13th August 2008

2008-08-13T18:58:00.000-07:00

With only ten minutes to spare, the Better Maitland Team lodged our nominations at Maitland City Council yesterday, in a day that was frantic!

Our team includes Jenny Aitchison (me), Lisa Webb and Leah Cox for East Ward Councillors and myself as a Mayoral Candidates.

Like so many women, I am quite busy in my life and the cycles and demands of my life were not entirely in tune with the electoral cycle. Earlier in the year when the Labor preselections were coming up, I couldn't commit to being Mayor and so I chose the harder path of running number 2 in East Ward behind existing Councillor Ray Fairweather.

Ray is great, but as more and more people started to ask me why I wasn't running in a winnable seat and more and more teams started lining up to be in the Ward, I realised that I did want this opportunity more than ever. So I thought about running for Mayor as an independent, but there would have been a conflict with me running as a Labor Candidate for the ward, so I decided to run as an independent for both Ward and Council.

I was really pleased not to have to leave Ray in the lurch as Elizabeth Stokes agreed to go forward as the number 2 candidate in East Ward behind Ray, and she is an excellent candidate, having had experience in Council in Cessnock when she lived there.

I then asked Lisa if she was still interested in running for Council. Lisa had mentioned about 12 months ago that she wanted to run next Council elections as she had just opened another boutique and was having a baby, so I thought as she had since given birth to India, a lovely placid and calm little girl, and the boutiques were going well, she might be more interested in runninng this time if an opportunity was there.

I gave her a call and she gave me her response. She was excited as her situation with the new baby was alot easier than she had thought it would be, and her business was in a position to allow her to bring her plans forward. She was eager to help out and get us started on getting more women into Council, and things had, for her and me, brought us to this point where we could make this commitment to the Maitland Community.

I then looked for a number three candidate and was lucky that Leah Cox, one of my colleagues, who grew up in Maitland was happy to help us build our team!

Then it was just down to the paperwork! And wasn't that fun?? But in the end we made it with ten minutes to spare!

It was very busy at the Maitland Room at Council. More and more people started arriving, and I could not believe the number of women who were there. We decided to see the outcome and when the draw happened at 2.30pm it was a packed house, with over 50% of the people being women. It was quite good for us - we were last in the Mayoral ballot, but at least we were on the end, we want people to do the donkey vote from the bottom up - the grass roots I called it! For the ward we were second behind Labor, so that was a good outcome too! I would have preferred alphabetical order as Aitchison comes before any of the others, but no such luck!

Then 4.15 came along and we assembled with our families, except Leah's son James, and had our photos taken. A few tears from a nervous Jessica who was still trying to work out if she wanted her photo taken, but at last with a bit of a call to her vanity, we convinced her that it would be a good option!

No time for a celebratory glass of champagne or even diet coke, Lisa and Nigel went to take India home and Leah and I went back to work! Last night we had dinner and I filled Robert in on the events of the day. I did a bit of work sending out media releases and realised that we actually had 29 women nominate, or 47% of the positions, and many of these are women who are very likely to gain a seat! I was so excited!

There are lots of opportunities for us to campaign and we hope to take advantage of all of them! We look forward to hearing from anyone in East Ward or the Wider Maitland community with their views.

Jenny Aitchison