Shady on council

INDEPENDENT candidate Nick Shady is gunning for a Central Ward seat in the October City of Ballarat elections.

As a former and current business owner, Mr Shady said he has the necessary experience to contribute some restraint and action where needed.

“We need people on council who have run businesses, know what it’s like to budget and that’s something that I’ve done,” he said.

“We need people that understand finance to be in council, we can’t keep going printing money and borrowing money for the sake of it.

“The next council term we’re going to be faced with some real budgetary challenges and we need people who are financially savvy to sit there and say how much is this going to cost?”

For the future of Ballarat’s Central Ward, Mr Shady’s key focuses are providing support for local businesses and residents in the CBD.

Recognising that all businesses would be suffering at the moment, Mr Shady said this is especially apparent in the centre of town.

“When it comes to the activation of the CBD, I would propose a suspension of the paid parking for the next two years to get people back into the CBD and give shops a chance to reopen.”

“Business owners are concerned about the parking, their concerned about rates, residents are also concerned about parking and recreation for their children.

“We need to come up with some solutions and go to the State Government and fix it now.”

Mr Shady stood for Liberal preselection, but didn’t get the party nod, during the 2019 Federal election campaign in the seat of Ballarat.

However, he said believes that party politics shouldn’t exist in local government, and would continue to run as an independent candidate.

“I think having party political agendas presented at local council is going down the wrong way, I’m concerned about where we are headed,” he said.

“You need some people in between to do the oversight of the council and their decisions.

“If I was elected, I would sit there and listen to everyone and then work together because … the council need to have a one goal of working for the people of Ballarat.”

For the next term of elected councillors, Mr Shady hopes to see some fresh faces and new ideas to actively promote and advocate for the people of Ballarat.

In scrutinising some long-standing members of the City of Ballarat council, he said he believes there should be a maximum of two terms for councillors in office.

“We’ve got people that have been in there too long,” he said. “Once you pass eight years you are not independent to the council and you are a part of it.

“If there was a two-term maximum, it would improve the diversity and get more ideas coming through the council.”