Profile
Michael Neoh
Serving the community:
As a current councillor I would like to say how much of a pleasure it has been to serve the Warrnambool community over the past 4 years and I would like to confirm my intention to re-nominate for the upcoming Warrnambool City Council election to be held in November 2008.
Living in the Community:
I was born in Warrnambool and with the exception of being away at university for 4 years, I have always lived in our fantastic city.
With my own young family and also my parents living in Warrnambool I am well aware of the lifestyle, environment and services that residents appreciate.
Working in the community:
I was previously a teacher at Warrnambool College and I am currently the Executive Officer of the South West Sports Assembly and work closely with the health, sport, recreation, disability and local government sectors.
Volunteering in the community:
- President of MPOWER - a disability agency that provides early intervention for young children and respite for carers
- Board member of the South West Academy of Sport – a service to provide state and national pathways for emerging athletes
- Coach at my son’s soccer club
Listening to the community:
It has been extremely positive to have represented on a number of council advisory/project committees:
- Community Services Advisory Committee
- Recreation & Youth Advisory Committee
- City Centre Structure Plan Community Engagement Committee
- Active Ageing Plan Steering Committee
- Recreation Strategy Steering Committee
Looking Ahead 2008 - 2012:
In addition to the important issue of maintaining roads, footpaths, drainage, public toilets, sporting facilities and open spaces in the next four years I will aim to address four other key issues:
1. Maintaining a vibrant economy
With our economy having a large dependence on the tourism, retail, education and service sectors, I will continue to support council’s role in the facilitation of growth to these vital sectors.
We need to be ‘investment ready’ to capture the opportunities as they arise.
2. Addressing Housing Affordability
Rather than play the ‘not our responsibility’ card on housing affordability I will advocate for two practical council measures:
- To continue to support considered, appropriate and responsible rezoning of more residential land to create a more competitive ‘buyers market’ for current and future generations.
- To ensure council is proactive, in ‘policy and action’, to promote innovative approaches such as staged ‘house construction’, whereby stage 1 would see a new homeowner in a basic house with the essentials with further stages pre-approved ready for construction when the family grows and/or the mortgage becomes manageable.
Council needs to play a role in creating a ‘policy and planning environment’ where both the current and future generations are able to get into the housing market.
3. Improved Services
I will continue to ensure continuous review and improvement of existing services for children, youth, families, older residents and those with special needs including their carers by ensuring council consults with the community in these service areas.
With a population of 50,000 in around 2030, and an ageing one, we need to ensure that our dollars allocated to services for those that need them the most are used efficiently.
4. Accountable Community Engagement
When council reviews its advisory committees in early 2009 I will propose that it develope a Community Engagement Advisory Committee. The role of the committee would not be to comment on project specifics, rather it would be entrusted to make sure that the community engagement around the project was effective.
The committee would comprise of skilled community members that would tick-off on council community engagement strategies for specific project/initiatives. Post-project the Community Engagement Advisory Committee would then evaluate the community engagement strategy process and feed the learnings back to council as part of the refinement cycle.
Whilst council’s community engagement has somewhat improved in recent times, there is still a great deal we can do to encourage the community to have a say on important issues.
Please take some time to view some images of the issues that I have advocated for and supported over the past 4 years and also the areas that I will continue to support over the next 4 years.
Advocacy in the media view some articles
