Councillor reduction 'an absolute disaster' that has led to less diversity, candidate says - ABC News & Headlines – Australian Broadcasting Corporation
The new Hobart City Council is looking likely to only have one woman on it.
Ben Lohberger is the front runner for deputy lord mayor, and tells Ryk Goddard on Hobart Breakfast he's "pretty upset about it".
"I think it's an absolute disaster that the reduction in our councillor numbers from 12 to nine was clearly going to result in a reduction in variety on the council, in diversity, and that's what's happened," he says.
Ben Lohberger is looking likely to become Hobart deputy mayor.(ABC News: Luke Bowden)
Ryk GoddardAnd what's your sense about the makeup of the Council which at the moment looks to be, well it's definitely gonna be massively male-dominated, possibly all men. Do you think, as Charles Wooley said, that that's because women haven't supported women?
Ben LohbergerLook, I am pretty upset about it. I think it's an absolute disaster that the reduction in our Councillor numbers from 12 to 9 was clearly going to result in a reduction in variety on the Council, in diversity, and that's what's happened. I warned about this six months ago when this issue first arose from the State Government when they decided to cut our numbers, with no benefit for ratepayers by the way, no money saved for ratepayers whatsoever, there's just less representation. And now look what's happened. We've got a Council with potentially one or none, or no women at all. I really think we do need to have a look at the reduction in the Councillor numbers and the effect that it's had, and if it has been responsible for this reduction in diversity, then we should look at putting the numbers back in my view.
Ryk GoddardI mean the argument One Nation put out a social media post very much in support of Lord Mayor Charles Wooley's comments as well, saying you know people aren't voting for diversity, they've voted for the people they wanted to represent them, they've exercised their democratic voice and this is what they wanted.
Ben LohbergerI don't think there's a One Nation representative on the Council Ryk, so I'm not sure why they're weighing in.
Ryk GoddardThere you go. In terms of Ben Lohberger, looking at your role in Council, it's a slightly more conservative makeup than it has been in the past, pro-business, maybe a bit more pro-cable car. If that's the way things go, would you get behind the Lord Mayor on that?
Ben LohbergerI will not be supporting the cable car Ryk. I'm a more of a community representative. I tend to represent the other end of the spectrum, which is the community and the people who are doing it tough.
Ryk GoddardWhat about the stadium? It looks like that may have crossed the threshold of inevitability. We're still not quite sure about that. What's your position on that and how Council should be relating to the stadium bill?
Ben LohbergerWell I'm opposed to the stadium. If it is an inevitability, then my focus will shift to trying to stop the State Government cost-shifting onto the ratepayers of Hobart and I think we all know they're going to try it. There are some significant costs there that they, I think, will try to put onto the Hobart City Council, in particular the cost of pedestrian infrastructure to feed 20-odd thousand people in and out of that stadium. It's clearly a cost related to the stadium and you know it could cost tens of millions of dollars. So Hobart ratepayers are not going to be subsidising that, in my view, and I think we should all, all of us on the Council should be very wary of that. It's probably at one of our biggest financial risks.
Ryk GoddardThis is a pretty deep Hobart story I admit, but it is a capital city and there's some quite influential things that get set by Hobart. So we've had eight years with Anna Reynolds at the helm. There's quite a positive wrap-up of her tenure by Greg Barns in the paper today. What's your sense of the last eight years of Council? What achieved? What they failed at?
Ben LohbergerLook, I mean it's a mixed report card in my view, but I think it's mainly positive. I think Anna Reynolds has been a pretty good Mayor of Hobart. We've certainly come ahead in leaps and bounds. The city is really globally recognised now and I don't think it was quite that way eight years ago. I do think we needed to change direction on the University move and that's happened. I think that was excellent. That was, the Mayor you know is not ideologically wedded to anything and she was able to change her position when it became clear that the people of the city wanted her to. So I was impressed with that and I think she's left the place in a good position. We're in a very good financial position compared to how we have been sometimes on this Council and certainly compared to a lot of other Councils.
