Minimising red tape and bureaucracy a priority as Mario Lionetti puts his hand up to be Albany’s next mayor

Cutting through over-burdening red tape will be the campaign focus of the fourth candidate to put their hand up to be Albany’s next mayor. Local business personality Mario Lionetti announced an intention to run this week saying the council needed to urgently address how red tape in the area of planning impacts businesses and rural communities. He said it was something he had had a great deal of firsthand experience with during his 30 years of doing business in Albany. “Many of the requirements for a planning consent, for example, are nonsensical, unnecessary and obstructive,” he said. “The process you have to go through is expensive and takes far too long. “The red tape and bureaucracy is a major barrier to development, whether you’re proposing to put up a couple of sheds or build a new housing estate.” He said his plans to grow Albany to a population of 50,000 would require “a huge addition to our housing availability”, but that current “long, difficult and expensive” compliance processes put off developers, individuals and businesses otherwise well-placed to stimulate growth. “They’re being confounded at every turn by the bureaucratic burden imposed by the City, this has to end,” he said. “If we want to attract more people to come to live in Albany we have to provide work, accommodation and public infrastructure not just to attract them but to keep them here. “We all know that Albany is a great place to live and work but if rental accommodation, for example, is hard to find and expensive, if there are no good jobs to go to, why would anyone move here?” He said there needed to be incentives for younger families to move to Albany, which included providing better employment and housing prospects, improving childcare availability and generally bolstering what was available to the community. He said it was not the council’s responsibility to directly improve those areas, but they should “lean on the Federal and commercial providers to do better than they are”. “In short, it is going to take a lot of investment and development,” he said. “The restrictive red-tape policies in place at the moment place a huge roadblock in front of anyone wanting to develop in Albany.” In his 780-word statement detailing an intention to run for mayor, Mr Lionetti said he understood regulations were necessary, but that they should be based on common sense. He said the council’s role was to “facilitate and assist landowners, business owners, investors and developers, not tie them up in red tape and exorbitant fees”. “Council must have a lighter and more helping hand on Albany’s throttle and as mayor, I will do everything in my power to make Albany an easy place to live, work and invest in,” he said. He also said he wanted to make sure there was greater accountability within the council because “there’s more to Albany than Middleton Beach”. Additionally, Mr Lionetti has aspirations of having a “proper university” built in Albany so that fewer young people would feel the need to leave the south coast to pursue opportunities in higher education. Regarding seven-day trading, he believes businesses wishing to operate seven days a week should be required to make contributions to “local sporting or charity groups”. “If they’re not prepared to do that, I say a big no,” he said. He said it was pivotal for the council to make it easier to invest and develop in Albany. “The way I see it, council is holding Albany back while often focusing on the wrong priorities,” he said. “Council has to place Albany first in their thinking and expenditure . . . We need to change the council’s outlook from ‘here’s why you can’t’ to ‘here’s how can we help’.” Mr Lionetti is the fourth candidate to declare an intention to run to become Albany’s next mayor. He joins Greg Stocks, Ken Kelly and Scott Leary as candidates ahead of the official eight-day local government election nomination period opening on August 31. A new mayor will be elected following the October 21 election.