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For eight years as a Hawkesbury City Councillor, I have sought to keep you informed about the issues that concern and affect you .
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I'm the only one of your twelve Councillors who tries to keep you updated in this way. I am a local schoolteacher by vocation, so I consider it one of my core responsibilities to engage you and keep you up-to-date.
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Councillor Nathan Zamprogno
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The Cure for Toxic Politics is just an Election Away
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Are you sick of the drama politics has turned into?
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I wrote an editorial for the July edition of the excellent local paper, the Hawkesbury Post and given recent events here and around the world, I think it is relevant.
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Check out the online edition of the paper here, or pick up your free print copy from the usual places. And please; support the local businesses that advertise in our local paper!
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bshGPBd1u-o
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"Have you noticed how nasty politics has become? I’m tired of it, and I suspect you are too.
People used to be willing to admit that people of differing convictions are capable of being honourably motivated. So why has a conversation about ideas been replaced by recrimination and litigation? Blame politicians who declare the press to be their enemy, shrug off any negative commentary as ‘fake news’ and endlessly play the victim card when called to account. Donald Trump has a lot to answer for, and we shouldn’t reward those who now emulate him.
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Perhaps this hyper-partisanship comes from social media and the age of misinformation we now inhabit, along with the shorter attention spans our device-addictions have given us.
When I teach my students about critical thinking and ethics, I start by asking them to put up their hands if they’ve ever received a scam email, text or phone call. Almost always, every hand goes up.
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This starts useful conversations about evaluating truth claims, wherever they come from. Is the caller claiming to be from my bank trustworthy? Is vaccination safe? What should we do about the environment? Is that charismatic, rolex-wearing pastor just filling his pockets? Which party and their policies will leave a better world for our kids? Teaching is as much about encouraging sceptical and evidence-driven habits of inquiry, as it is about ‘right answers’. It’s satisfying to see ‘lightbulb moments’ in the faces of young people, and this keeps me upbeat. It convinces me that people want to care deeply, if information is put before them in a way that respects their intelligence and invites their engagement.
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Time-poor people often use the shortcut of picking a political brand to make sense of the world. 66% of voters voted for a Party at the last Council elections in 2021, winning nine out of the twelve positions on Council. Before 1995, there were no parties on Council, just twelve good citizens. Perhaps we should return to that.
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When I speak to locals, many report disenchantment because of a perception that there is no longer any meaningful difference between the Labor and Liberal parties on Hawkesbury Council. For many years they’ve regularly backed each other in to stitch up the positions of Mayor and Deputy Mayor, lock others out of committees (and recently, abolish them), and have spent their time backing policies that are sharply out of step with their grass roots, whether that’s on the environment, or heritage, or development, or accountability.
It’s one thing to be collegiate, but this looks increasingly like a racket.
Fortunately, Aussies can spot such inauthenticity a mile away.
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Many of those elected on party tickets would never be elected under their own steam, and contribute very little to chamber debate. It seems likely that the candidates the Liberals will offer up won’t even be the subject of a preselection or a face-to-face meeting to endorse the ticket, leaving their aging and dwindling membership put out that they are expected to show up on election days, pay up, and shut up, robbed of any debate about whether these candidates meet their approval.
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After 32 years in the Liberal Party, I confess I was for too long complicit in this pantomime, but I’ve been strongly encouraged by many since finding my independence and my voice, even though this has come at some personal cost. Clearly, the feeling isn’t isolated, evidenced by the decade-on-decade decline of the Labor-plus-Liberal vote from 98% in the postwar period to 68% at the 2022 Federal election.
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Modern voters are now far more a-la-carte about their politics. Each of us can find positions we agree and disagree with within the Liberals, Labor and even the Greens. That’s why we get angry when politicians don’t work together.
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At my school, as on Council, we think a lot about building ‘culture’. I dream of the Hawkesbury as a city with high social capital, respect for both the natural and built environments, a respected and engaged citizenry, naturally low crime, where growth is guided by need and not greed, where our focus is properly on the basics like roads and equitable rates, but where those in need or distress find themselves promptly surrounded by practical and moral supports.
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Council has a role in fostering such a culture. But it can’t come if our elected leaders bicker like schoolchildren, cynically use their platform for higher ambition, or limit the reporting of data that shows who turns up and votes which way. Voters deserve a Council where the views, skills and life-experience of all twelve members are valued.
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Thankfully, all such problems can be solved with an election."
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Thank you to Superintendent Karen Hodges AFSM for your service
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Now, after over 35 years of service, she is moving on and has accepted a position as Deputy Chief Officer of the South Eastern Region of the Queensland RFS.
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Rather than have the remarks buried as part of a longer meeting, I wanted to pull out what was said for the broader public.
Karen, thank you for your long and faithful service. We will miss you.
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List of the 24 “Section 44” (major bushfire emergency) declarations Karen Hodges commanded since 2000:
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• 3rd December 2001 to 11th December 2001
• 24th December 2001 to 16th January 2002
• 10th October 2002 to 17th November 2002
• 23rd November 2002 to 16th December 2002 (Wellums Creek)
• 24th September 2006 to 25th September 2006
• 22nd November 2006 to 18th December 2006
• 20th November 2009 to 2nd December 2009
• 30th August 2012 to 2nd September 2012 (Bowen Mountain)
• 28th September 2012 to 30th September 2012 (Mountain Lagoon)
• 8th January 2013 to 9th January 2013 (Pre-emptive)
• 3rd November 2013 to 11th November 2013 (Laws Farm)
• 11th January 2013 to 14th January 2013 (Pre-emptive, Tinda Creek)
• 10th September 2013 to 19th September 2013 (Windsor Downs and Tizzana Road)
• 10th October 2013 to 11th October 2013 (Pre-emptive)
• 13th October 2013 to 23rd November 2013 (State Mine, Webb's Creek and Howe's Swamp)
• 27th January 2014 to 28th January 2014 (Hell Hole Fire Oberon and Bathurst)
• 11th December 2015 to 23rd December 2015 (Budda Creek and Terraborra North)
• 27th September 2017 to 30th September 2017 (Lower Hunter)
• 19th January 2018 to 26th January 2018 (TJ's Fire)
• 6th January 2019 to 11th January 2019 (Lidsdale)
• 8th October 2019 to 17th October 2019 (Purgatory Creek, Shark Creek 2)
• 24th November 2019 to 27th November 2019 (Little Boree)
• 26th October 2019 to 10th February 2020 (Gospers Mountain, Wrights Creek, Thompson Creek, 3 Mile)
• 26th October 2023 to 31 October 2023 Baerami Bulga
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Should the Hawkesbury become part of the Sydney ant-hill?
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I wanted to highlight this video again in my newsletter as I think of it as one of the most important messages I have brought you as a Councillor. This is what's at stake in the upcoming elections.
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Granny Flats: You deserve more choice | Hawkesbury City Council
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One of the more frequent inquiries I get from residents concerns the desire of many for a better policy regarding dual occupancies, granny flats and secondary dwellings (there are differences between them which I explain in the above video).
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The way that Hawkesbury Council currently treats them is insane, with some permitted on small house blocks in say Bligh Park or Hobartville, but bizarrely banned on acreage properties where they would be a better fit.
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What's frustrating is that this could be fixed through a new LEP (our main planning policy), and the previous term of Council completed one and sent it off for final approval from the State Government as it's last act in late 2021.
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Then, the Liberal and Labor bloc, as literally the first thing they did in the first meeting of this term in January 2022, pulled it back for 'further work'. This entire term of Council has now passed with no end in sight to finally enact an LEP with better provisions for dual occupancies. In the meantime, developers love the antiquated LEP which is still in effect because it permits things that a new and more modern LEP would restrict.
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No Councillor has advocated more vocally for a better policy for the reasons I state in my video, and it would seem that the only hope now is to change the complexion of the Chamber at the next election.
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