[New] PORT MACQUARIE-HASTINGS MAYOR PETA PINSON, HAS MUCH TO BE PROUD OF

✦ Peta shares with Brilliant-Online, her successes in local government, goals for 2023 and aspirations for not only her future, but for all of her constituents and the Greater Port Macquarie/Hastings region as a whole.

The December election was a great achievement, coming in with a team to support her proved to be beneficial, elected as Mayor and all four Councillor candidates on her ticket elected as well.

She told us, “It's really important that you have a team behind you to get things achieved. Local government is still political, there's politics at play, and it's really important that you have people support you.”.

A $288 million budget, for the benefit of the community

Another proud moment for Mayor Pinson, the delivery of a large budget. At the time we spoke, Council was six months into the budget, so six months to go.

“It was really important for me as Mayor, with a supportive team, to be able to send a message to the community to say, core business is our priority. This is what the Council needs to focus on. So our road network is a priority, we all know how bad our road network is.” vWe have all seen from the deluge of rain over the last couple of years, the impact of the unprecedented weather events on the Port Macquarie Industrial area and Wauchope CBD as a couple of examples.

In the last six months PMHC has put a lot of money into the road network, repairing the infrastructure, especially some of the area's major arterial roads.

“A classic example of that at the moment is Kennedy Drive. But not only that, our sewer network, we haven't made significant investments in those areas in a long period of time. It's time to get real and be honest, own up to that and be accountable. So, a lot of money has been put into our sewer network, and also our stormwater network.” said Peta.

“Bear in mind, a lot of this infrastructure when it was planned back in the day is 50 plus years old, and isn't coping with, obviously, the growth, and we've seen a high growth rate, especially in the last five years. So we really need to invest in those areas. And we have been, and I'm really proud of that.” Peta told us.

Opportunity and Challenge

Peta told us that one of the most frustrating aspects of her role is dealing with bureaucracy, whether it be at a local government level within her own political backyard, or at a state level.

“So there's a lot of legislation that we're hamstrung by. That really frustrates me. But I'm certainly a person who makes it known exactly what I think and how I feel, and I go into bat for our community and have done since day one.”

“ I went to the election with a team of five on the team Pinson ticket, I chose these individuals as I felt at the time they were like minded and most aligned to the community values and expectations.

When we come into the chamber, we all come in as individuals, but in saying that it can be challenging in the chamber, because at times we have differences of opinion. And some people see things differently. And that's democracy. You certainly see it at play in some of the council meetings.”

Hopes for 2023

There is a plan of a blueprint, a helicopter view of the region looking at where the growth areas are, where the pinch points are going to be and where responsible development should occur and where it shouldn’t.

“ Development is really important to our community at the moment. There's a lot of infill development, duplexes and the like, happening and people are becoming quite upset about it.” she said. “ The State Government allows these developments to happen. Infill development puts pressure on infrastructure, vehicle parking, garbage services, stormwater and sewer. As the area grows all of these services are needed by more people.”

Peta stressed that we need to keep in mind the reasons why we live in this beautiful region and why we don’t want it to be totally overpopulated and ruined.

“ We have to be really considerate about the types of development we're allowing, we're going to be having those discussions this year. I'm looking forward to that. And that feeds back into the conversation of the blueprint, having that high level, looking down over our region, to be sympathetic to our environment, obviously, because we have a beautiful environment. And looking after that as well, because one of the top priorities for our community is that our environment is not damaged, through our growth and through development.”

Peta told us she feels the big growth area in the electorate is Camden Haven and another out west in Beechwood. Homes are popping up everywhere in these areas.

Port Macquarie-Hastings!”

Community input is always welcome

Via regular engagement sessions, community members get to have their say and report any concerns that they have. Also, community members can go online through the Council website and Apps, and report concerns in real time like a tree down, a pothole, or issues like graffiti.

Peta believes that the Council has a huge responsibility on behalf of their community to look after the health, wellbeing, and happiness of the people that live in the region.

It’s Peta’s sixth year in local government, her second term as Mayor.

She says,” I've never in my life, and I'm almost 54, been aligned with any political party, but I'm a conservative/ progressive voter. That however changed in December 2022 when I joined the National Party to run as a candidate in the State election for the seat of Port Macquarie."