I was born in the UK in an industrial city called
Wolverhampton. The youngest of 5 children, my family made many financial
sacrifices in order for me to be able to attend University, (not a common thing
at that time for kids from Wolverhampton!) where I gained my Honours Degree in
Political Science.
After University I was fortunate enough to work for
some very large international companies in a variety of management roles,
before taking over as Managing Director of a UK based IT company at the age of
29.
Since then I have run and owned
businesses, both here and in Europe.
I have also had the pleasure of having
extensive involvement in a great homeless charity called The Big Issue, helping
it to win the Lord Mayor’s Community Event of the Year Award, in 2012.
At a local level I have been heavily involved in
organising a number of charity events including for Flood Relief and also a
function that is now becoming an annual Wellington Point charity day,
supporting great local causes. The next one is currently in the planning stage
and will hopefully be bigger than the last one which raised approx $14k for a
great local charity!
Away from the commercial and charity worlds, I
spend my downtime with my family, or enjoying sport. A fan of most sports, I
have played, as well as coached soccer, at several local clubs including
Mooroondu, Bayside United and most recently at Capalaba Bulldogs.
I was also
lucky enough to spend a few years running the Big Issue’s Homeless street
soccer program.
Having been on many great holidays to Australia, my
wife and I decided to permanently move here to Brisbane in 2002, and have been
living in beautiful Wellington Point ever since. We are Australian Citizens,
our daughter was born here and we love it!
And that’s one of the reasons I am
standing for Division 1 - because I want to see our community prosper into the
future, and I believe I can help to achieve that for all of us.
I am running for council because I believe that if
we are going to continue to be a successful and vibrant city going forward, we
need to move away from the politics of confrontation that has crept into our
local government.
Redland City is a large, beautiful, diverse, and growing area
that will only prosper with professional and competent leadership, working
together to make The Redlands even greater.
I want to utilise my extensive
national and international (commercial and not-for-profit) experience to help
us meet the challenges of the next few years.
Our future does not have to be one of development versus
environment. But recently, it seems that the
council chamber is a divided chamber, between those who are pro the supposed
extreme ‘greenies’ and those who are pro the supposed ‘anti-environment’
developers. Not only is a divided
council not good for any of us, but it is also a gross simplification of the
vast majority of people’s views.
Most residents understand that there is going
to be some development, but they want it to be sustainable, without destroying
the beautiful environment we live in, and to be supported by the right level of
infrastructure.
We want our kids to be
able to afford housing here, and not necessarily have to commute daily into the
city for the majority of further education and job opportunities.
Some population growth is
coming, but it does not have to be at the cost of losing what we hold so dear.
It is therefore imperative that we have people
in place with the experience to be able to manage this growth and change
proactively, whilst protecting our great way of life.
Being an area of
Australia where the local government is not politically aligned, should
actually make the task of working together to achieve this easier. But that is
not currently happening and that is why, it’s time for a change.
Ultimately, I want to defend and enhance our
village lifestyle and sense of community, to ensure our pristine Moreton Bay
remains pristine for our children and grandchildren, to ensure we do not go
back to the cost blowouts and massive rate increases we have seen previously,
and to help us move forward as a great and united city.
My undertaking to you is that I will represent the
needs of all Ormiston & Wellington Point residents and stand firm against
the pressures of special interest groups. I do not intend to just ‘listen’, but
to act for all local people, young or old, employed or unemployed, working
families or community groups.
I stand for a transparent local government where
what I say, what I do and how I vote will be open to public scrutiny. Your
scrutiny. And that is exactly how it should be!
I ask you to vote
1 for Paul Branagan at the coming election.
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