00:00I left school wanting to be a detective. I had a long life ambition to, I just loved it,
00:08I've always had a brain for problem solving and wanting to understand and, you know, get in and
00:14understand what's wrong and make it right. And I did the preliminary courses and so forth when I
00:20was 17. I was quite young. Got accepted. I even got accepted into an advanced intelligence program
00:29in Canberra. And I went, no. And the reason I went no, and I say this unashamedly, you know,
00:37I'm a real mummy's boy. But I thought, I'm not moving not only at a home, but interstate for
00:44nine months. Like, no way. That was a real big thing for me at 17 years of age. And I thought,
00:50no, I'm not doing that. So I then followed career ambition number two, which was accounting. Again,
00:57I always enjoyed numbers because numbers to me were problem solving and numbers don't
01:01lie. You know, two plus two is always four. You can try and put a slant on it, but it's
01:05always four. So I started accounting at University of South Australia. That's where I went. So
01:11two very completely different careers, you know, from sort of police investigative work
01:15to accounting. It was option A and option B. I didn't join the police force and I never
01:21become an accountant. Instead, I actually joined the finance sector and the property sector through
01:26elders was my first professional career and I've kind of landed in local government. Local
01:31government is always about problem solving and that can be good and bad. It's very much
01:36about how we solve communities, how we work with communities and solve their problems and
01:39solve issues of the day and work with people to get good outcomes. I mean, that's fundamentally
01:44the basis of local government. And then right through to organisational management as well
01:49where there's a lot of problem solving. But so there is some similarities to it, but you
01:53probably apply that across most sectors too. The mayor should always be, and this is understanding
01:58and respecting the roles, the mayor should always be that principal spokesperson because
02:01that's the role fundamentally. And they're elected by the people to speak for the people.
02:06That's basically what the mayor does. I see my role as a public servant. And I say that proudly,
02:10not as a flippant statement. My role is no different to a senior public servant within the state government
02:15or the federal government. My job is to serve the government of the day. You give full and frank,
02:20unbiased advice, and you respect the decision of the government of the day and your job is to
02:25implement it. It's not to point score. It's not to play games. It's not to say right or wrong. It's
02:28not to try and take control. It is understanding how the public service works and generally state and
02:34federal do it well, obviously. Local government, I find at times can get itself into a bit of a twist
02:38in a bind because it doesn't quite always understand and respect the roles and responsibilities of, you know,
02:44mayor, representing people, speaking for people, CEO, public servant. People don't understand their
02:50roles and responsibilities or accountability comes into play or they're hearing things they don't like
02:56or sometimes you start to shine a bit of a light in areas that people don't like. That's accountability
03:03and integrity in action again, right? One of the things I've always done in my role and even when I
03:08was a mayor, respected the administration and then now coming onto this side as a public servant,
03:12respecting the views and wills around the table and I say this consistently at the table,
03:15I'll give you advice if you want the advice but it's not for me to then judge personally and I'll
03:22give you the full and the frank situation of where we're at. Some people welcome that and go cool,
03:27no worries and they're fine and they can go off and make their own decisions and some don't but for
03:32some people it can also be very confronting. We're still only what just over a year now, right? So my focus
03:37has been predominantly the organisation as itself, you know, the people. Now we've got 600 plus head
03:44count across our organisation so it's about what are we doing and do we have our internal processes
03:49and systems right? No we don't. Are we working on it? Yeah we are and are we doing great work? Yeah we are
03:54and our people are really starting to come alive and step up and do some some really cool things and
03:58we'll continue to do some really cool things here as well. So that's my focus on it and to make sure that
04:03the council is supported. It's also that cultural shift to recognise to the council that you are the
04:09premium decision maker here, right? Yes I'll make operational decisions around HR and hiring and
04:13firing and doing what we need to do to run the organisation to deliver the things we need to
04:17deliver but ultimately the key decisions and strategic decisions sit at the council table.
04:22That's not my decision. It's not my decision to say what is the strategic view of Launceston. Yes I'll guide
04:27and help and we've obviously just adopted our strategic plan but that is for councillors to decide,
04:32that is for them to own, that is for them to articulate, that is for them to say to the 70
04:36plus thousand people of Launceston this is our collective view and the direction of the organisation
04:41and we've employed this person to make sure it happens. I'm a believer in you stay in the role so
04:47long as you can add value. There's nothing worse than a hanger honour where someone stays in a role
04:51because they feel entitled to stay in a role or you know without me the council won't survive. I mean
04:56that is being a martyr when you get to that approach. So when I feel I've done what I can do
05:00I'm quite happy to then hand the reins over to the next person because that's what public
05:05administration should be and the same with councillors you know they should achieve what
05:09it is they've set out to achieve they should know what it is they want to achieve and they should
05:14have a vision and they should be articulating that vision and once they've felt that they've been able
05:18to achieve it or done the best they possibly can to get there then you allow renewal to come through.
05:22It's no different on the administrative side we do the best we can we allow renewal to come through
05:26otherwise we become stagnant.
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