Election brings out hopefuls

Independent Upper House hopefuls for the upcoming March election, Max Trenorden, Phil Gardiner and Bill Cowan, took a whirlwind tour of Narrogin last Wednesday to highlight issues affecting the region.

They met with representatives from the Town and Shire of Narrogin as well as supporters.

Mr Gardiner said one of the key issues was the lack of social infrastructure in the region.

“Social infrastructure has been very much a Perth-Canberra oriented service and we don’t look at ourselves in the main as being part of the problem or part of the solution to our social infrastructure issues, so it’s always what can Perth, or the police or community services, or child protection do,” he said.

“Those agencies are trying and doing their best in most circumstances but the problem is every community is different in the type of dysfunction they have and the whole thing needs to be revolutionised.”

Mr Gardiner said the community consultation was required to develop a strategy for social infrastructure.

“The community needs to come together to develop a plan and it will take quite a few meetings with different community groups, and they must agree on a plan and be responsible for the service delivery of the plan by hiring different program providers for the particular services they have to deliver,” he said.

“The nuances of that are best understood by the community and the local government.”

Mr Gardiner said he didn’t have a timeframe to implement his plan but said he believed it would be cheaper than the current system.