Tradition doesn't foil Mayor's chance to "sell' her city

Jenny Houlihan is not stopped by tradition when given an opportunity to “sell” Shepparton.

City of Greater Shepparton Mayor,
Cr Jenny Houlihan.

The mayor of the City of Greater Shepparton exploited an opportunity at the University of Melbourne to talk about the benefits of living in Shepparton.

She was one of a panel of four, along with the keynote speaker at the Melbourne launch of Beyond Zero Emissions (BZE) report on a high speed train for Australia.

Shepparton is included on the route for the BZE-proposed train and Cr Houlihan was invited to attend and respond to questions about the importance of the train to regional areas.

Chair of Wednesday night’s event at the university’s Carillo Gantner Theatre was the chief executive officer of BZE, Dr Stephen Bygrave, who asked specifically about benefits brought to Shepparton by high speed rail.

Cr Houlihan thanked the keynote speaker, the Federal Member for Bennelong, Mr John Alexander, who has Liberal Party responsibilities for regional development, high speed rail and development of polices to address urban traffic congestion, for “almost” accepting an invitation to visit Shepparton.

The Federal Member for Bennelong,
Mr John Alexander.

Answering question from the chair, Cr Houlihan ignored tradition and told the near full auditorium about the wonders of life in Shepparton, rather than directly answer the question.

She talked about her council’s involvement with the project to date and in admitting that it now felt at little out of the loop, she was excited to be at the Melbourne event and hear Mr Alexander’s enthusiasm for high speed rail.

Cr Houlihan told those at the launch that she would like to “drag” him for Shepparton as we need to keep our community engaged and inspired.

She then talked about why it is great to live in Greater Shepparton, pointing to the fact that “our city” acts a major industry and employment centre pointing out that the city has many smaller towns nearby.

According to Cr Houlihan Shepparton services about 250 000 people around the area.

She said many in the audience may have followed our fight to save SPC Ardmona and, she added, we are prepared to fight just as hard to get high speed rail.

“We are reliant on a strong transport sector to support our activities and we are home to a very large migrant and refugee population, including many humanitarian refugees who presently have no other means of transport, particularly when they arrive, other than public transport,” she said.

Cr Houlihan said her council was thrilled when it saw is had been included on the fast train route and “don’t anybody try to get us off that, or there will be big trouble”.

She said the fast train will “quite frankly be transformational for our region, (it) absolutely will change who we are and what we do”.

Economic benefits from the high speed rail project will, according to Cr Houlihan, include the ability to attract other businesses to the area and allow for increased efficiencies of existing businesses, improved property values and increase the enrolment of students in existing tertiary institutions.

She said tourism in the area would benefit, the high speed rail was environmentally friendly and council had already considered matters relating to construction of the high speed rail and, she noted, council already has a strong working relationship with the Goulburn Broken Catchment Management Authority.

Alluded to the fact that council, and the people of Greater Shepparton, are proud of their rivers and waterways and “we know we want to keep the health of those” and in any infrastructure we will ensure that environmental features are proactively considered in any of the high speed rail planning,

“It is anticipated that a high speed rail station located at Shepparton will provide a significant impetus for population growth as people take advantage of the opportunity to reside in a well serviced regional city with lots of sunshine and open space and keep that in mind as you might be able to shift there one day, and we would love to have you” she said.

According to Cr Houlihan a very fast train would enhance Shepparton’s competitiveness and she could only see ”huge benefits” from the proposed high speed rail.

She argued that the high speed rail would better integrate our communities, ease congestion on our roads, as well as provide the foundation for a low-carbon activity econ

“Greater Shepparton needs to be a part of this and the direct benefit which will flow on form it is really exciting for us, – very pleased to be here to rt you from a regional city point of view and we will be with you all the way, please take us along for the ride,” Cr Houlihan said.

In answer to a question from Dr Bygrave, Cr Houlihan talked about the present poor public transport service to and from Shepparton and explored the massive benefits of a fast train to many in the community.

We should be concerned about limiting growth, not just closing roads

An idea beyond the comprehension of most never really found its way into the discussion at last week’s public meeting about the closure of Shepparton’s Andrew Fairley Avenue.

The Limits to Growth"
by Donella Meadows.

In our modern business world efficiency mostly equates with growth for it is through those improved processes that profits are further boosted.

The idea of efficiency/growth is good was never questioned for viewed through the prism of most, it is revered ground and to think otherwise brings only scorn.

Efficiency/growth is not necessarily a good thing and to close a public space in the furtherance of its name is simply the wrong thing to do.

Consistent growth in a finite world is statistically impossible as unequivocally explained by Donella Meadows in her 1972 book, “Limits to Growth”, published by the Club of Rome.

About 200 people listened as the SPC Ardmona’s chief financial officer, Mr James Harvey, explained why the company needed exclusive use of the avenue; then to the Mayor of the City of Greater, Cr Jenny Houlihan, who talked about why, how and what processes the council had followed to reach its present position; and then the president of the Greater Shepparton Better Local Government Association, Mr Gordon Hamilton, talked about why his group opposed the road closure proposal.

Questions and discussed ensured, frequently damning the probity and processes of the city council, along with suggestion from a few of a conspiracy between SPC Ardmona and city council.

Sadly the idea that both organizations, along with the community, needed to settle on a future not aligned with efficiency and growth was never discussed.

Yes, we need efficiency, but not of the type that produces only profit, rather we need a style of efficiency that will ensure the resilience of this community as the world steps into an energy-depleted future, a future that science has shown will be hotter, drier and decidedly different from the energy-rich post World War Two decades.

Success in the future for this community, and all others on the planet, will hinge on what is known as ‘localism” – that is the turning inward of all villages, towns and cities to ensure they provide for themselves, wherever possible, all their food, energy and other critical needs.

Last week’s meeting uncovered a restlessness for here was something many saw as unnecessary, something that could be resolved with innovative thinking and something in which the benefit was not worth the cost.

Importantly, we are headed for even more interesting times for the realities described by Meadows in her Club of Rome book once hidden beyond the horizon are now in full view.

Rather than gathering at public meetings to discuss the closure of one road, we should be meeting to talk about building resilience and adaptation.