Naturally the man himself was as happy as a sand boy when he was elected deputy mayor of Liverpool last week. Indeed Councillor Gus Balloot sent an SMS to his friends and associates soon after his elevation, which read: Dear friends: I am very excited and pleased to share some news with you. After being a councillor for two and a half years I was honoured to be elected deputy mayor of Liverpool City Council last night. Regards, Gus Balloot.
But his election does raise a couple of issues. And these do not include that Cr Balloot does not live in Liverpool, as some Labor councillors were keen to point out after his election. But he is the fourth deputy mayor in less than three years, so if they’re not careful in council headquarters there will be a perception of a revolving door. The Local Government Act does allow for deputy mayors to serve for six months, so there’s no problem from that point of view. But serving for such short periods can lead to perceptions of instability, even if that’s not clearly the case. The popularly elected mayor, who at present is Ned Mannoun, is of course in the job for four years, so there’s no dramas there.
• As a former champion AFL player, the federal member for Macarthur, Russell Matheson, has really got behind a plan to get more of us off the couch and participating in organised sport. Matheson, in welcoming Play.Sport.Australia -Australia’s new national strategy that outlines key priorities for improving participation in organised sport – didn’t pull any punches about what he’d like local couch potatoes like me to do: “I want more people in Macarthur to be up off the couch, putting down the remote and getting active,” Mr Matheson said.
“We as adults need to set the example for our young people and get involved with a sports club. We boast about being a nation that loves our sport, so let’s show it. Whether it’s a competitive game of footy or a regular social bowls tournament, it doesn’t matter—you’re up, you’re active and you’re more likely to stick with it if it’s organised and structured.” Can’t really argue with him, can we? But whether we put down the remote and get up off the couch, well, that’s another matter.
• Good to have Sean Cunningham as part of the South West Voice team. Sean is a former colleague at Fairfax and took a redundancy at around the same time as me this time last year. Fairfax were crazy to let him go because Sean is one of the best writers in Sydney, let along Macarthur. His most recent contribution was a nice feature piece on Leumeah bodybuilder champion, the Mighty Quinn. Anyway, their loss is our gain and we look forward to more contributions from him in the future.
