Mayoral Memo - 27 April 2022
As with any vocation or committee position, being a Councillor has some aspects that are more enjoyable than others. I have witnessed a few facets at both ends of the spectrum in the last week alone.
Budget workshops are in full swing at this time of the year. Poring over a $243 million budget takes many hours and one workshop last week saw Councillors finish work at their normal job and then work from 5.30pm through to 10pm trying to squeeze the most out of our available dollars. This is just one of many such workshops and they are essential but can also be somewhat tiring. Just when Councillors thought they could relax with a long weekend and throw a couple of coins in the air, most spent their weekend reading through 1,111 pages of business papers plus 127 confidential pages in readiness for the Thursday Council meeting.
On the plus side though, Councillors helped launch the Festival of Footy last week along with showing off their talents painting Reggie the Rabbit and dozens of residents spoke to us alongside our State and Federal counterparts at a Community Leaders meeting.
One of my favourite aspects of being a Councillor, though, is a Citizenship Ceremony. Another 37 Aussie citizens were created last week. Leaving your home country must be a huge decision. The most common countries for people to leave and come to Dubbo are England; India; New Zealand; Nepal; Philippines; China; Sri Lanka; South Africa; USA and Germany. After deciding to leave, the next biggest decision is…where to go? There are almost 200 countries in the world, and these new citizens chose Australia. That makes me a proud Australian. There are over 100 cities and more than 1,700 towns in Australia. With all that choice, these residents chose Dubbo. That makes me an incredibly proud Dubbonian and Councillor. I like to talk to our newest citizens and find out why, apart from a great Council, they chose Dubbo. What are the drivers for their decision? My favourite story from last week was one family who said that they considered a range of locations but when they looked at photos of our residents, everyone seemed to be smiling. They wanted to be somewhere where everyone was happy! Apart from smiles, securing a relevant job is easily the most common reason I am given to make the final decision. That is an area where the Dubbo LGA has a huge advantage. Despite metropolitan dwellers thinking we are all farmers, we have huge variety in our occupations. Our top seven employment sectors are: Health Care; Retail; Education and Training; Construction; Public Administration; Accommodation/Hospitality and Manufacturing. With cultural and sporting facilities and good transport linkages, what isn’t to like about moving here?
Tell me why you would move to the Dubbo area at mayor@dubbo.nsw.gov.au
Councillor Mathew Dickerson
Mayor of Dubbo Regional Council
Last Edited: 24 May 2022