Albany mayoral contest 2023: Cost of living, housing, cohesion, transport and health are top priorities

This year’s race to become the next City of Albany mayor is being contested by seven candidates. Every Thursday in the lead up to the October 21 election The Advertiser will ask each candidate a key question to give our community a better insight into who they are voting for. This week we asked the candidates: What do you think is the most pressing issues for Albany? And how can you help fix it as Mayor? Their responses have been limited to 100 words each and the candidates have been ordered according to how they will appear on the ballot paper. Lynn MacLaren The most pressing issue is community cohesion. Polarised community debate keeps us from reaching our full potential. When I asked a cross-section of voters to name their most pressing issue, three themes emerged with one thing in common — communities want to be heard and they want council to take action. Whether it is delivering affordable housing or as one said, “Achieving a sustainable balance between development, biodiversity conservation and community amenity (including strong respect for Noongar heritage and customs) in a time of global warming”. My fresh energy on council will bring us together to reach community’s goals. Greg Stocks Long-term, unavoidable issues for Albany include housing, childcare facilities, South Coast Highway and airport upgrades. Let’s talk future generational housing. Range Road is vital to unlocking about 6000 Yakamia housing lots over the next 30 years. Housing availability, affordability and improved rental inventory depend on this road progressing. As Mayor, I will lobby government for the estimated $10m build, advocate to change State policy, seeking government upfront funding of headworks (circa $20m), allowing small, local developer involvement, without the initial services cost. Without Range Road, re-aligned slightly or not, there will be no long-term, alternative Albany housing plan. Cheryl Kneebone The most pressing issue facing Albany, is a new format for transport, fixing the roads and not having to redo them constantly, assisting those in need of housing, for those without a home and those in dire situations, the council supporting the people of Albany far more than they have, instead of going against their wishes. Tourism is not being handled as effectively as we can; there are many truly beautiful areas which haven’t been a focus. We must handle the future of our environment with a decisive method ensuring we go from sustainability to a new level of green living. Matt Benson-Lidholm The most pressing issues facing south coast families and businesses would have to be cost-of-living increases and associated inflationary pressures. Be it increasing fresh food prices, soaring fuel costs, or increasing bank interest rates impacting borrowers, businesses and mortgage holders, locals are doing it tough. Federal and State government decision making isn’t helping, with food security impacted by restrictions on professional fishers and sheep farmers. If elected Mayor, I will work closely with councillors, city staff, the business community and general public, in seeking local solutions and ensuring council costs and charges don’t add to our woes. Scott Leary There are a number of issues that run concurrent with each other but for me housing is a major issue. If we are to continue to grow to provide better facilities in health, roads and public infrastructure, our housing stocks need to increase. It enables us to attract residents to our region and allows for existing families, keeping our youth here. Benefits homelessness, youth, employment and family safety. My role as mayor is to facilitate relationships with developers to encourage investment in our region in a considered approach taking into account social impacts as well as environmental whilst making informed responsible decisions. Ken Kelly Health and well-being: People of all ages are being bombarded by the rush and stresses of living, the pressures of social media and an inability to switch off. This negatively affects people’s coping mechanisms and can lead to long-term health conditions. By alleviating negative social conditions, people’s health and wellbeing will increase leading to best-practice communities. My experience in dealing with negative social conditions such as lack of housing, suicide, domestic violence, homelessness, drug and alcohol disorders, coupled with increased economic and job security, means that I fully understand the issues and the measures needed to fix the problem at its source. Chris Thomson Albany is in the midst of a cost-of-living crisis. The Senate cost of living inquiry, to which I made a submission, has made interim findings that groceries and housing are major contributors to the soaring cost of living. To improve housing supply, I’ll push for performance-based rather than prescriptive building and planning policies, and for quality medium density homes in inner Albany. This will increase housing diversity and slow the sprawl. To ensure working and low income families can buy cheaper groceries on Sundays and after 6pm on weekdays I’ll strongly advocate for night-time and Sunday trading for all supermarkets.