The Political Facebook Trolls in Geraldton

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Every time a story appears on Everything Geraldton's Facebook page that talks about certain political parties, a number of suspicious “community members” chime in in the comments attacking Labor and whatever candidate is being mentioned. We've also noticed it happening with our friends over at the Geraldton Guardian. 

It’s like clockwork. 

We did a little research recently on some of the more active trolls. And the results were... interesting.

First, each account seems to only post content that supports the National party. We haven't noticed this behaviour in support of Liberal, Labor, Greens, or One Nation. That's certainly not to say it doesn't exist. We just haven't yet found it on Everything Geraldton. 

Each account has a lot of political connections, mostly to prominent National Party members. 

Many of the accounts are clearly not real people. 

The following article is our research of two such accounts. 

Here's the first. 

Clive Jenkins. 

A quick glance at Clive’s Facebook account shows he’s very much a fan of the National Party. He reckons he lives in Margaret River, even though he has a very keen interest in Geraldton politics.

And here’s an example of some of the comments he has left. All very much attacking anyone who’s a Labor member, and very pro National party. This one was on a story about Renee Ellis, Geraldton Councillor and Labor candidate. 

And here's Clive lending his support following the National Party's announcement in Geraldton about their hospital plans. 

You get the idea. 

Here's some of Clive's "friends" on Facebook. It's essentially a collection of fake accounts and National Party supporters or members. 

Hey, it’s not against the law to support a particular political party. So what’s the problem here?

Let’s keep digging and find out who Clive actually is. 

This is Clive Jenkins' profile photo. 

Now there's a clever feature in Google where you can upload an image and do a search on it. So let's try it with Clive and see what we can find out. 

And here's the results... wait what?!

So Clive's photo is actually that of convicted paedophile David Jenkins. It's one thing to set up a troll account... but another to use a convicted paedophile's photo.

Here's another troll account that has been super active lately. Albert Knowles. His photo is not a paedophile's as far as we can tell. So that's something. And he ironically shares his name with a British trade union leader from the 1800's.

But he's very much into friending real people, even those who he clearly despises. 

Oh look. Albert is friends with our good buddy Clive. Let's try and find out what kind of comments he leaves around the place. 

Well, he's clearly not a fan of Labor candidate Renee Ellis. But he seems very well informed on local political situations that trigger by-elections. Certainly more informed than your average Joe. 

But check out his comment on this Geraldton Guardian post, and the response from Renee Ellis... Albert has actually added Renee Ellis as a friend. 

It's hard to understand why he'd "friend" someone he so clearly wants to see out of office, unless he was just trying to access her personal posts that can't be seen by the public. 

A little more searching shows that Albert is often liking Clive's comments, and vice versa. 

Here they both are again commenting 16 minutes apart from each other, having a go at Liberal member Ian Blayney.

Last night we ran a fairly boring announcement about Labor.  

Sure enough, like moths to a flame, out came the National Party supporters fake accounts. 

Albert has a slight dig at the shark net. So he's evidently not a Liberal party supporter. And look who "liked" Albert's comment. Old mate Clive. 

Let’s be clear. We’re not asserting that specific politicians are running these accounts. There’s literally no way of knowing who's managing these fake profiles.

We're not suggesting reading Facebook comments is a fruitful pastime either, but the next time you see a “community member” chime in with their clever argument in an attempt to sway public opinion, maybe just click on their name and see if they’re even a real person.

Everything Geraldton spoke with Paul Brown, Nationals candidate for Geraldton, regarding the issue of these trolls. "I've been publicly accused... there's an allegation. I can thoroughly refute that allegation. I'm sure that there's people out there possibly hiding behind it. I'm quite happy to make comments under my own name. You can find comments about a whole range of things where I've commented under my real name. I don't need to hide behind fake accounts. There are a couple of accounts that I consider troll accounts that make regular criticisms of me on Facebook posts. I accept that that's part of my job. When appropriate I respond. But more often than not, I don't. If someone thinks they're a troll account, probably the best thing to do is ignore the comments."

Footnote: Everything Geraldton receives hundreds of comments across our various platforms (website, app, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter) every day, and with a small staff we're unable to monitor every comment made. We'd like to thank the members of the public that point out fake and troll accounts by messaging or emailing us directly. As the above two accounts were the subject of this story, they have not been removed by us at this time.

Labor promises $20,000 to help Bundiyarra continue its quarterly newsletter

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Labor Candidate for Geraldton Lara Dalton is promising to allocate $20,000 to the Bundiyarra Aboriginal Corporation (Bundiyarra) to assist with the ongoing production of their newsletter if Labor forms government at the upcoming state election. 

Everything Geraldton has in the past run several articles that originally appeared in the Bundiyarra newsletter. They are generally very well received by the wider public. 

Lara Dalton on the commitment: 

“A McGowan Labor Government will allocate funding to Bundiyarra as part of its plan to create jobs and opportunities for the Geraldton community.

“The Bundiyarra Newsletter is a fantastic local project that provides a great service to our community.

“It is well-read, provides important and useful information and ensures that those people who aren’t connected to the internet are up-to-date and connected with what is going on.”

The newsletter is distributed in both digital and hard copy format.

Shadow Minister for Tourism and Corrective Services Paul Papalia:

“Communication and engagement are important to any organisation and we are pleased to be able to assist with this newsletter, particularly as not everyone has access to the internet.” 

5 reasons a shark barrier is great news for Geraldton

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Survey

Do you think Geraldton needs a shark barrier?

You may have heard that Colin Barnett was in town yesterday, making the promise to install that shark barrier that none of us have ever asked about. Even the Sydney Morning Herald did a story on it (link). As you're probably aware, Sydney siders are always talking about how Geraldton doesn't have any shark barriers.

Just kidding.

No-one from Sydney who read the article has ever actually been to Western Australia, but they're interested in our prosperity because they need all our GST revenue. 

It's interesting that shark barrier announcements make national news, but state government cuts to the City of Greater Geraldton in virtually every other area is met with the sound of crickets.

Now I know what you're thinking. Why the heck do we need a shark net or barrier or whatever, when there are so many more pressing issues in Geraldton? Why is the state government cutting funding to Geraldton with one hand, and giving us shark barriers with the other? Doesn't this announcement demonstrate that our politicians are completely off the planet and out of touch?

No. There's some great reasons why this shark barrier is a win for Geraldton (if we re-elect a Liberal government of course). We just need to use some good-ol'-fashion Gero ingenuity and we can make good use of this shark net barrier thingy.

1. We can rip it up and install it on the bridges where the kids are throwing rocks

For years we've been asking for barriers along all the bridges and roads where cars keep getting rocks thrown at them. (And also for those who get caught to actually be punished). People have been hospitalised, cars damaged, and residents too scared to drive through certain areas of Geraldton. This shark barrier could be repurposed as a barrier to stop those rocks... you know, the problem everyone has been carrying on about for years. 

2. Maybe TAFE, I mean Durack, no wait, it's TAFE again, could use it in their Aquaculture program.

They're always being threatened with funding cuts. Perhaps they could use it for something. 

3. If we attach a tarp to it we could rig it up as a shade sail along the foreshore.

Practical and artistic. 

4. We can put branches and leaves in it and use it to hide the speed camera guy's car. 

The Police and state government love hiding X-Trails in the bush, and this could really help them make the roads safer by better hiding those speed camera cars so all those hoons don't slow down but instead get a fine for doing 8 km's over the limit on a dual carriageway down hill. Damn hoons. 

5. An alcohol barrier. 

Perhaps we could install it around the new bottle shop that we didn't want as a kind of test, and if you are too drunk to be able to climb over it, you don't get any booze.

If you've got a suggestion for what to do with the shark barrier, fill in the form below.

(Click here if you can't see it.)

 

 

Please lie to me: Why we're responsible for the mess that is modern politics

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When I was 19 I started selling cars. 

Half my job was selling the car people were interested in. And the other half was buying the trade-in from the customer.

I learned that there were two different strategies salespeople used when people had trade ins. 

1. One strategy was 'alway ask what the customer wants' for their vehicle. 

Here's how the conversation would go:

Customer: "I like this new Pajero. How much will you give me for my Datsun 120Y?"

Salesperson: "How much do you want for it?"

Customer: "As much as I can get. What's it worth?"

Salesperson: "What do you think it's worth?"

Customer: "Four grand."

Salesperson: "FOUR GRAND! It's not worth that!"

Customer: "Well you tell me what it's worth."

It's an awkward conversation. The salesperson's head is done in because the car is only worth $250, but what's the customer supposed to say. He's essentially setting them up to lie to him. 

2. The other strategy was to 'never ask how much the person wants', and just tell the customer what the car is worth. 

Here's how the conversation would go:

Customer: "I like this new Pajero. How much will you give me for my Datsun 120Y?"

Salesperson: "Give me the keys and I'll get it valued."

Customer: "Thanks."

Salesperson: "I got it looked at. I can give you $250."

Customer: "Can you make it $350?"

Salesperson: "How about I give you a set of floor mats for your new car instead? They normally cost $150."

Customer: "Deal."

I learned to adopt the second approach. It's far less painful as a salesperson. You're not asking customers to lie to you, and the clients appreciate you just being straight up. 

But most salespeople would essentially ask the clients to lie to them, then complain that their clients were lunatics who thought their bunky cars were worth a million dollars. 

I am of the strong opinion that we do the same thing with politicians. We ask them to lie to us, we vote for the one with the best story, then we complain that politicians never keep their promises. 

Fast forward a decade and a half and I find myself interviewing politicians with a bunch of other journos. Then one day it dawns on me. We're ASKING these guys to lie to us. The entire political-media game is built around this charade where the media asks "What are you going to do about blah blah blah?" And then we publish whatever they tell us, with no financial training to be able to tell if their numbers add up. And we NEVER ask the question "and what services will you cut to be able to fund that?" Truth is, when journos are interviewing politicians, they feel super important, so it's rare to find one that will actually say "You're full of shit mate. Your numbers don't add up..." because he or she wants to be able to interview them the next time. 

Then the public picks which answers they like the most, vote, and some folks in suits form government. The can NEVER achieve their election promises, because it turns out no one has a crystal ball to predict iron ore prices, thus they can't predict tax income, thus they can't predict how much they'll even have to spend. 

And then three or four years later we do the entire thing all over again as if any promise uttered by a politician in the lead up to an election is even worth writing down. 

But I don't think we can blame the politicians. Nor can we really blame the media. Blaming those two groups is such a useless trope and it gets us nowhere. We click on the articles with the politician's promises. We ask the pollies how they're going to solve the world's problems and bring us inner happiness. And that needs to stop. 

Since when did it become the politician's and tax payer's job to fix everything in the world? Why is it even the government's job to decide who gets to marry who? Why do people in Canberra decide what we're allowed to smoke? Why are taxpayers responsible for funding everything from stadiums to home buyer incentives? How did it get like this?

It got like this because the only factors we consider when deciding who to vote for is "Who's going to promise ME the most stuff!"

But ask the average person on the street what the philosophical differences are between Liberal, Labor, and the Nats, and they couldn't tell you. 

Heck, even I could hardly tell you. 

"Well it's simple, Labor are more progressive, to the left, and Liberals are right wing. And the Nats are the same as the Liberals except in the country," I hear you explain. 

Oh really? If that were the case, you'd expect the Liberal party to be fiscally conservative, aiming to have a smaller government that does less "stuff", and believe in allowing private individuals to set their own destiny. Yet most of their members WANT to interfere in everyone's private life, have a say in who they should marry, they blow money like they just won lotto, and they've left WA in more debt that I can reasonably comprehend. That's at the end of a MINING BOOM! I'm not saying Labor could have done any better. I'm just saying "what the hell does the Liberal party actually stand for other than 'we're not Labor'?"

And don't get me started on the Labor party. What do they stand for exactly? Unions? Gay marriage? Are unions even a thing in 2017? More and more people are working for themselves and it seems Labor does more to hush their association with the unions than boast about it. They held power in Canberra for two terms and didn't say boo about gay marriage. And as soon as the right wing party comes in to power, anyone who doesn't support gay marriage is a homophobe. Give me strength. Heck, even Kevin oh seven got elected originally under the pretence that he was "fiscally conservative", and pundits more or less agreed that people voted for him because he was bassically a younger version of John Howard. Kevin oh seven's "fiscal conservatism" went flying out the window the moment the world's economy collapsed, and every school in Australia ended up with an overpriced building they didn't really need, and plasma TV sales went through the roof as anyone with a kid got $900 checks almost on a monthly basis. 

But like I said, we can only blame ourselves. 

We keep asking these guys to tell us stories. Tell us about the amazing hospital you're going to build. Tell us about how you're going to magically solve the meth problem. Tell us how you're going to somehow lower taxes, increase social welfare, create jobs, increase wages, grow businesses, fix the roads, stimulate new technology, cure cancer, reduce suicide, increase our life expectancy, improve our bank balance, reduce inflation, increase farmers' profits, reduce our grocery bill, support charities, keep us safe from all harm, make us fitter, happier, more productive...

What choice do they have? Would you vote for the candidate who tells you the truth?

Imaginary candidate: "Listen. Here's the truth. No one has any idea how to fix the meth problem. We're going to try 10 different things, measure the results, and replicate what works. But we can't promise anything. It's a worldwide epidemic, and smarter people than us are failing at it. Also, we have no idea what the world economy will look like in 12 months, or 2 years, or 3 years... so we can't promise to build anything. Here's a list of our priorities, but we don't know how far down the list we'll be able to get. And I've got some bad news. You're actually pretty wealthy with your $300,000 household income. I know you like to think you're an Aussie Battler, but you're really not. You're actually going to have to pay MORE tax than you are now if you want that new stadium. It's called maths. And why is it my job to decide who marries who? The Australian Government didn't invent marriage, so I'm not sure why we manage it. Talk to your priest or something, I don't care what you do with your life. I can't promise exactly what will happen in the future, but I can tell you what my guiding philosophy is, what my values are, and how I make decisions."

Well actually, I would vote for that candidate. 

More CGG cutbacks- this time it affects life savers

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More CGG cutbacks - This time there's no lifeguard for Back Beach, one of Gero's most notorious beaches, during the school holidays.


"Very disappointed that after many years of having a paid lifeguard at the Back Beach during the Summer holidays, the CGG have decided not to have one this year.  The weekends and Public holidays  will still be patrolled by the Geraldton Surf Life Saving Club but week days there will be no one there.  I hope the cost cutting doesn't impact on someone's life." - Lisa Mardon


Response from the City of Greater Geraldton:


“The Council made it very clear to the City of Greater Geraldton Executive that large rate rises are unacceptable and continuing to the run the City in a deficit position is also not acceptable. As a result, the City has taken measures to reduce its annual operating expenses and reduce rate increases. The Council also wanted to ensure that there was equity between different sporting clubs and noted that the Champion Bay Surf Life Saving Club operates without any support from the City.

"Last year the Geraldton Surf Life Saving Club received $20,000 from the City and we will be working with them to apply for grant funding to assist with operating costs.

"The club also has the option of presenting a business case to City Council for the decision to be changed and they have been notified of this.  The business case will need to demonstrate the quantified impact the Council not paying the grant will have on the club, project financial statements and a demonstration of attempts to apply for alternate funding solutions.

"The City will be installing signage at Back Beach and Tarcoola Beach areas to communicate with beach goers about potential risks in the area.”

Some very sobering road safety statistics for the Mid West

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Mid-West 2015 fatalities 26.4 per 100,000 population

Last year 17 people died from road crashes in the Mid-West/Gascoyne and close to 100peoplewere seriously injured.

WA South Metropolitan2015 fatalities 5.1 per 100,000 population

WA SE Metropolitan 2015 fatalities 5.3 per 100,000 population

WA Central Metropolitan 2015 fatalities 5.4 per 100,000 population

WA NW Metropolitan 2015 fatalities 1.7 per 100,000 population

Overall WA 2015 fatalities 6.2 per 100,000 population

2015 was the lowest fatality rate per 100,000 head of population for WA, for a calendar year since records began in 1961.

Australia 2015 fatalities 5.1 per 100,000 population

New Zealand 2015 fatalities 6.0 per 100,000 population.2

United Kingdom 2015 fatalities 2.9 per 100,000 population

Sweden 2015 fatalities 2.8 per 100,000 population

SOURCE: WALGA

Don't abuse those who are having a go

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I know a couple of business people in Geraldton who are doing it tough at the moment. They run a couple of small businesses, and I know they've been doing it extremely tough lately with the economic downturn. But they love Geraldton's potential and have chosen to keep pushing forward.

Recently they were mistakenly attacked on social media over something that was not true... and people piled on without getting their facts straight.

And now their hearts are broken.

You see, it's hard being in business at the best of times. It's even harder being in business in regional Western Australia, in one of the most isolated cities in the country, in the middle of a massive economic downturn. It's tough wondering if you're going to lose your house, close your doors, say goodbye to all your staff who rely on their wage to pay their bills, and deal with the humiliation of failing very publicly.

Social media has given everyone a very public voice. Often the loudest voices are people with no skin in the game though... no experience running a company, nothing on the line themselves, and nothing positive to contribute.

Should business owners be held accountable? Sure. Should they be lynched by angry mobs when someone accuses them of something, regardless of whether there are any facts to back up the assertions? Err... no.

Do you want to run all the entrepreneurs out of Geraldton? Because that's how you run all the entrepreneurs out of Geraldton.

The next time you feel the need to attack a business person online, potentially hurting their ability to feed their own family, consider the following:

  1. Most business owners in Geraldton are not rich. Most would earn a lot more money and have a lot more spare time if they just went and got a job.
  2. Business owners are just regular people like you and me, who are having a go. They're often risking their homes, and most of the time they will fail.
  3. Most business owners want Geraldton to prosper. They're not trying to rape and pillage the town. They're trying to improve it for everyone.
  4. Without small businesses thriving in Gero, we'd lose a LOT of jobs.
  5. They have feelings. Not all business people have skin as thick as a rhinoceros. If someone's business is a labour of love, then it really hurts to be publicly attacked.

As the world's economy shifts more towards digital products, automation, and the future becomes uncertain for many, we need to collectively encourage those among us willing to have a go. There's been some great ideas and fantastic businesses that have come out of Geraldton in the last decade or so.

Our entrepreneurs are our most valuable resource moving forward, creating jobs, stimulating the economy, and potentially changing the world for the better.

Why not send a local business a word of thanks or encouragement? You have no idea how meaningful a little thank you or pat on the back is to someone doing it tough in business.

I, for one, am thankful to all the business people in Geraldton who are having a go. I know it's not easy, but I'm grateful there's so many out there who are able to ignore the naysayers, and are rolling their sleeves up and trying something new.

I have started around 5 businesses now, and most have not been very successful. But I don't think of them as failures, just as learning opportunities. So if you're thinking of starting your own business, remember that even if it doesn't turn out as you had hoped, you haven't really failed, you've just given yourself a very intense, hands on, education.

Surround yourself with a handful of positive peers you trust.

Do your best each day.

Get enough sleep.

And don't read the comments.

A chat with our Mayor after one year in the job

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It's now been over 12 months since the people of Geraldton elected Shane Van Styn to the position of Mayor.

I had a chat with Mr Van Styn about the past year, the state of the union, as it were, and how he's finding the role of Mayor.

"One surprising thing for me has been the high regard that people hold for the office of the Mayor. It's extremely difficult to turn down attending an event or an opening."

"A casual thing that's changed is now having to get better dressed to go to Bunnings. Everyone likes to stop and have a chat about what's important to them in their city. Bunnings has gone from a 10 minute walk-in-walk-out to an hour or two job. Same as the supermarket. It's a small thing, but it's something that impacts you nearly every day."

So you shop online now?

"No! Shop local, buy local!" Shane bellowed cheerfully.

I was curious about the Mayor's background, and how he came to live in Geraldton and become Mayor. And I found the story rather surprising.

Shane is from the suburb of Gosnells in Perth's south east. He had just finished uni, and was heading north, past Geraldton, to visit some friends when his car broke down in Geraldton.

"I couldn't afford the tow truck at the time," said Shane. "So I swapped them for my car. I was forced to stay the night in Geraldton."

"In my last exam there was a guy from Geraldton, Christopher Quelch. And for some reason I wrote his phone number down on a pencil case. I had decided I was moving to Albany. I was moving to the country and had chosen Albany. And for whatever reason I took that pencil case with me (on the trip up north). So I had a phone number to ring. So he did a ring around for me. 'He's a good bloke, big fella, plays footy, does security, is an accountant, looking to move to the country.'"

"A couple of footy teams approached me and offered to sign me up. I got offered a job doing security work, and I got offered an accounting position in town. By the morning the real estate agent had come around to show me houses."

"I met some security guards that I knew, and got an accountant job in the now Town Towers."

So you have great memories of that place then?

"I remember very well getting stuck in the lift. It was the thing to do in Town Towers,"  Shane recalled, smiling.

"I was also there the day the toy store caught on fire. I came downstairs and they were surprised to see I was still there. They had forgotten to evacuate everyone upstairs."

Whoops.

"I said 'That's alright.'"

"As part of that trip to Geraldton, and this is why I'm so passionate about the verge pick up skip bins, I fitted out most of my utensils, furniture and appliances in my house by landing in Geraldton during the time of verge pickup. I went and scavenged. Got a chair, got a bed, toaster, vacuum, wok."

So you started at the bottom.

"On the bones of my ...."

"I originally said to Mum 'I'll be back in a year'. About a year after that I decided I'd hang around for a while. I don't think I ever made a conscious decision I'm staying here for good, it's just the way it's evolved. I certainly have no desire to leave, at all."

"Geraldton chose me, not the other way around."

From that humble beginning, albeit with an accounting degree in his pocket, Mr Van Styn became involved in a number of companies over the years, including Yamaji Mining and Civil, Westwood Accountants, Camel Bar, a night club, and has had roles in the community including president of the basketball association, Councillor, and of course now Mayor.

And for those paying attention, you'd know Mr Van Styn has tried entering state and federal politics also, as a candidate for the National Party.

Had politics always been an aspiration for Van Styn? In short, yes.

"Even as a young kid my Gran would tell me I should always be a politician the way I would debate issues. Her Father was a Labor upper house member in the Western Australian parliament."

So she had exposed you to the political world?

"Yeah. But she couldn't stand it. Ha."

But she still suggested you should be a politician?

"I don't think she was meaning it all positively," Shane says, smiling.

I laughed at the thought of an old lady sarcastically telling an argumentative little Shane he should be a politician, meant as a gentle criticism, but becoming a prophesy.

"Even in primary school and in early high school I used to go and visit the local member and have a chat."

Shane also spoke of being involved with 'guild tickets' at Curtin Uni, student clubs, and other activities that would lay the foundation for aspirations in the political world.

Once Shane was settled in Geraldton, he became one of the regular letter writers into the paper.

"So you had people like me vs Olly Wrenstead, Jack Simpson, Jim Du Boulay... they were some of the regular letter writer inners, and I became one of them. I started going to council meetings and challenging the status quo, as a member of the public."

Shane reflected on how he was similar to the folk who regularly appear now at Council meetings, challenging himself and Council.

"John Sewell, who was on council at the time, one day said to me 'Look Shane, you're showing up here all the time, giving us a hassle. Put your money where your mouth is, put up or shut up.' I can't remember the exact phrase, but something like that. 'A couple of us aren't standing, there's a couple of spots.' And I thought 'He's right there. He's extremely right. If you think you can do a better job, then stand.'"

"So I did."

Thus Shane Van Styn became a councillor.

So how did Shane Van Styn end up with the National Party and running for state and federal parliament?

"So I was sitting there in my offices at Yamaji Mining and Civil and Grant Woodhams came and knocked on the door, with my mate Gerry Gould from Geraldton Hydraulics. They asked to have a word, and said 'Would you mind running for the National Party in the upcoming state election?' They put forward their case. I thought about it. Brendan Grylls rang me. Few other people rang us. At the time I rang Ian Blayney to say "I'm actually thinking about this."

Previously Shane had been a member of the Liberal party. He says he had tried to engage them, but hadn't had any success getting to a conference or making it into the inner circle. "But the National Party was the exact opposite," says Shane. "They couldn't do enough for you. They invited me to all their conferences, gave me a chance to meet people and speak. So that was that. Had a run, obviously didn't make it. Then the Federal election came up. They said 'Would you run against Barry Haase? Shane, your posters are still up. You've just run an election. We've got no money. Haase is going to win. We just want a name on the ticket.'"

"Just a name on a ticket. Political parties do it all the time. They just want a name on the ticket, it helps them get electoral funding."

Shane said it was also close to the upcoming local government elections, thus he was able to quit his position at council without triggering a by-election.

I can remember at ABC on a Friday, Glenn asking me, 'Shane, really what would it take for you to win?' And I said 'Barry Haase would have to retire.'"

"Then Saturday morning, phone rang about 7:30 in the morning, it was Barnaby Joyce, and he says 'Shane, Barnaby! Have you heard Barry Haase has retired?' I went 'What?' I thought he was joking. But then why would Barnaby be ringing me at 7:30 in the morning? But if he's ringing my personal phone it's serious. Then Alex McKinnon from the Guardian rang, and then it was on."

"It was quite late in the election cycle, so at that point I was the only profile candidate announced in Durack."

There was a big swing toward the National Party at that election, but Van Styn would ultimately come up short, after Labor gave their preferences to the Liberals instead of the Nats.

Shane was pragmatic in reflecting on the two losses. "In terms of losing, I came second. If Palmer United hadn't spent so much money I would have won. If Labor hadn't given their preferences to Liberal, I would have won. But not with the State election. Ian Blayney won that fair and square."

Is Ian Blayney going to win the next State Election?

"The next state election is going to be incredibly tight. I honestly can't pick it. But I acknowledge that it will be harder for Paul (Brown, Nationals) to win it than it would be for Ian to lose it."

Shane was pretty dismissive of Labor's chances of winning however. "When you look at the last election, Liberal and Nationals primary vote was 70%. Labor can't win. Unless the National party decides to do a preference deal with Labor, and Labor getting ahead of the Nats. That's the only way I see Labor being with any reasonable prospect of winning."

Following the Federal election, Van Styn put his hat back in the ring for Councillor with the City of Greater Geraldton. This was the year 'City of Greater Geraldton Ratepayers Demand Change' endorsed a number of candidates, Shane being one of them.

"Not officially," said Shane, when questioned about the endorsement. "But I was one of three people that voted against it (the massive rate increase of 2012 that birthed CGG Ratepayers Demand Change). 

The other two councillors to vote against that now infamous rate hike were Jerry Clune and Bob Ramage.

Are you proud now that you voted against that 27% rate rise?

"It was more than just voting against 27% rate rise per se. The principle of what we were arguing about, particularly me and Bob, was the need for expenditure restraint. If we were running an incredibly lean and mean operation, skin and bones, it could be put forward that we needed a 27% rate rise to build infrastructure that everybody wants; if rates were at record lows (compared) to everybody else, you could make the argument. So it wasn't the 27% rate rise per se. The context of us having a woefully bloated administration, and THEN a 27% rate rise, was way too much. So we had two arguments. We thought we were too big and bloated ALREADY, even without the 27% rate rise. The two combined was utter madness. And rate payers... well, unfortunately Bob Ramage got chucked out in the election. That was the election where I was the only one that was returned."

Becoming Mayor

From talking to you, you seem to have a lot of regard for Mr Carpenter, (the former Mayor), even though you disagree on several things. How did you feel running against him?

"I used to discuss this occasionally with Neil (McIlwaine, Deputy Mayor at CGG). At the time I wasn't comfortable running against Ian. I have a lot of regard and respect for Ian. That being said, there were some significant disagreements... the size of the city operation, and the rate rise for one... and look, that was by and large all we ever really disagreed on."

"It wasn't an easy decision, but then I saw Rob Jefferies nominate, and start to get traction, you know, a bit of utilisation of social media and the like. Rob was also one of the former CEO's of the city, and we're still paying off those investments from back then. The administration grew under that as well, the financial structure deficits that we have... Everyone was telling me they want change, someone new. We saw Shane Hill stand. Again, he'd been elected as a Labor member, wasn't new, and Gavin Hirschhausen, who at the time I had no knowledge of. So as time went on people told me 'You should run, you should run.' In the end it wasn't easy. I chatted to Neil McIlwain about it, I asked if he was going to run, he elected not to, so, after enough people asking me to run, and that was a big part of it, I elected to run for Mayor."

Would you have run if Neil had run?

"Can't answer that. I don't know."

Shane spoke highly of Neil McIlwaine, the deputy Mayor. Neil is someone a lot of the Councillors go to for advice, and everyone holds in high regard.

So you won the Mayorship. There would have been a lot of sad faces as the person who was their boss for the last eight years was suddenly gone.

"I think there was a lot of sad faces in there, I think it's fair to say that we're fairly different characters. So there was probably an element of 'What have we got ourselves into?' when I came here, and I actually take great comfort that people would tell me that to my face. And not in any way derogatorily... I mean, I'm a pretty open guy and people seem to feel pretty comfortable telling me what they think, one way or the other."

"So I think the most important thing you can do after winning an election is winning over the naysayers, those who didn't vote for you... and look, we went straight to work into what ratepayers wanted. Within weeks we got rid of tip fees. That was the number one thing people spoke to me about."

Shane talked about what he wants as far as the City's fiscal position goes.

"I want to be breaking even as quickly as we can. I want to see the city in surplus, and currently our long term financial plan has that set for four years time. I think that quite comfortably we can beat that."

Does that fiscal conservatism come from your time in business or is that a philosophy you held prior to that?

"The initial part of my fiscal conservatism is probably that I grew up in a low income household. So we didn't have much, but yet we had plenty. Never went hungry, got to go on a holiday once a year. Lived in a small house, in the wrong suburb, in the wrong part of town, yet we had a great upbringing. So you learn to appreciate what you've got."

Shane reflected on how his upbringing trained him to live within his financial means, and how that translates into his role in local government.

"I think too often local government, because it's not your money, you don't apply the same level of rigour in the decision making process. So I treat every ratepayer dollar as if it was a dollar I paid, and if I didn't spend it, it's a dollar I don't have to pay."

Your differentiation when you were running for Mayor was 'We're the city, we shouldn't try to be everything. We shouldn't be trying to put a man on the moon, we're just the city of Geraldton.'

Do you feel like you've been able to execute some of that?

"That's a great analogy, because that's exactly how it was. Getting back to basics. Get back to the business of being government. We were putting a man on the moon, trying to do this and that... they're great aspirations to have, but how do you intend on attracting record tourist levels if your own residents don't think it's a nice place to go for a walk on the weekend?"

"If you can't keep the residents entertained from time to time, how do you intend on attracting people from other regions to come and spend time here? So you've got to get your house in order. The 'roads, rates and rubbish' argument for local government, and there's a couple of other r's these days; recreation, we're responsible for entertaining everyone these days, and of course regulation. We bust you for smoking and lock up your dog."

"The election result was so strong that it sent a message that this is actually what the community wanted."

"When you have a ward system, there's actually only one person who gets voted on by the whole of the city, and that's the Mayor."

"So, I reluctantly use the word 'mandate', Ken (Diehm, CGG CEO) hates me using that word, but if there was any mandate to be drawn it's just to get back to basics. People are tired of rate rises, for what they saw as frivolous things, stuff that we shouldn't be involved in, so I've been able to bring other councillors along, and collectively we've been able to achieve that."

Van Styn put the emphasis on collectively, as though to remind everyone he's not railroading changes through, but decisions are being made by the whole of council.

Let's talk about tourism.

"Tourism is incredibly important. We spent a little bit of money on the dump point at Francis St Jetty, and see how rampant that got overnight, RV's and caravans are everywhere."

"Now we've had to put Rangers down there so it's not full of people camping."

"Just that little investment showed us how fruitful it can be. A cruise ship was here today. Those little investments we've made with some shelters and some shade around the place is bringing them ashore. It's been phenomenal. What it will do is it will drive us to improve accommodation, Town Towers and the like."

"Tourism is also about your family members that might live in Perth coming to visit. Tourism is about people who might be 4 or 5 hundred kilometres away, might be in the Wheatbelt, coming here. We associate tourism with inbound foreign tourists, and that's good, but the overwhelming majority, over 80% of our tourists, are actually from Perth."

"So focusing on tourism will mean more cafes, more accommodation. One of the things about being a tourist town is you actually create more stuff for locals. As you beautify your town to attract tourists... you actually have a beautiful town to live in. Win-win."

Shane spoke a little of the branding issues we still have in Geraldton. "We don't know if we're the Batavia Coast, Coral Coast, Turquoise Coast, Sun City, Geraldton, Geraldton-Greenough, Greater Geraldton, Geraldton-Greenough-Mullewa, who knows? Golden Outback, Mid West, Mid West with two words, Midwest as one word. We can't even agree how to spell Midwest! This is how diabolical it is."

It's definately two words.

"One word," argued Shane, which only served to prove his point.

"As we've tried to work out how we're going to handle the branding we've engaged consultants, looked at reports, looked at migration reports, looked at visitor perception surveys, put some science behind it, how we're perceived in the market, and benchmark that against other places we either want to be like or consider ourselves on par with. It's all great to say 'We don't know what we call ourselves,' or 'we can't find crayfish,' or 'It's great because we've got some wind and sand.' Let's actually put some data behind it. Then you look at what that tells you and you relay that to the businesses and say 'How would you fix these issues?' They come up with the ideas, and only then do we start. And I see radical change coming in that space as we get tourists together under the banner of Progress Mid West, a soon-to-be-in-existence economic development unit, a stand alone enterprise that's not a lobbying or representative group per se, it's an economic development agency outside of council so it can move at the speed of business rather than the speed of government."

And tourism will be in its portfolio.

"We've spent a lot of time singing kumbaya at council, it's time to get down to implementation."

What else has happened in the Mayor's first year?

One Night Stand

One Night Stand was a massive coup for Geraldton. Thousands of visitors descended on our city for Triple J's annual massive regional concert event, the One Night Stand. 15,000 people were at the event. Apart from being a fantastic night out with performances from Boy and Bear, Urthboy, Alison Wonderland, Bernard Fanning, and locals Alex the Kid... plenty of money was raised for local charities and community groups.

"That came from the Mayor talking to a bloke on Facebook! Through my Mayor page."

Geraldton was originally nominated by a local resident who then reached out to the Mayor. "Never met the guy. Brad Gundlach. He contacted me through my Mayor page. So I'm the first Mayor on Facebook. And we communicated that way. And we got in touch with Triple J that way, and then had Ken and our city team get together and they went and put together the proposal and got it across the line. So that was social media working for good."

"We had to move fast. Decisions had to be made. Budgets had to be "interpreted". And you had to keep it all secret. But we got it done."

Shane spoke of the economic benefits in the community too. "Within an hour of the announcement from Triple J about One Night Stand, every hotel room was booked. The economic benefits of all of that were huge. Little Athletics had about 400 campsites. I think they raised about 40 or 50 thousand dollars for the night. Probably more money than they'd raised in three or four years. Towns football club made $6000 selling cans of drink. $20,000 for headspace. And it flows through (the local economy) massively."

Sport

"We've had the Wildcats playing a pre season game. And we're pitching for an AFL preseason game early next year."

Shane also mentioned the Stand Up Paddle Boarding event, Open Water Swimming Challenge, BMX state rounds, and polocrosse.

Improving people's opinion of Geraldton

"The best form of marketing is not TV ads. It's about getting them here and them taking a look around. 'Cause everyone's sort of been here once. 'I drove through once. Yeah I pulled in there for fuel and it was crap.' You know? You've got to get people here. And the way to get people here is to run events that drag people here. So attracting people with large concerts, large sporting events... all these events that bring people up and they see it. And that is how you boost tourism. You get the word on the street. 'Yeah I've been there for myself. I've seen it. I've tasted the food. I've walked down the street. I've been to the foreshore. I've been to the memorial. I've looked at the wildflowers.' That is how you improve the state's perception of the city. What Geraldton people need to do is lift their positive outlook of the City. Part of that is getting back to basics. And providing the footpaths and the trees, parks, and all the stuff that they need. Including putting playground equipment back."

Shane started recalling a conversation he had. "'GO AND FIND THE BUDGET AND PUT THE PLAYGROUND EQUIPMENT BACK!'"

He was referring to the large number of parks that had their play equipment removed without being replaced, prior to him being Mayor.

"I think it's fair to say we're a lot more engaged with the community now than we have been. I think we're held in a lot higher regard. We've listened to the community and become community led, which is how we should be."

Mayor Van Styn flanked by CGG CEO Ken Diehm.  

Council and the future

What's your relationship like with the other councillors?

"Really good, I get along with all the councillors."

Even the Mullewa ones? There was bit of a thing earlier in the year.

"Look, Mullewa councillors are passionate about their community. I think when councillors are in disagreement with each other are often at their best."

If you were to ask anyone on the street what ward they're in they couldn't tell you. Except the Mullewa people. Do you support the Ward System broadly, or would you support changing that?

"I think we have too many councillors."

Why?

"Because we could save the city some money. If we halved the number of councillors we'd probably save a quarter million a year. But that's an issue for council to debate, the public to comment on. Part of that is 'Do we have wards, do we not have wards, do we have more wards, less wards?' I know that when people used to contact me they'd look up the phone number on the website and then they'd go to the ward that was relevant and go 'You're my ward councillor, etc.' Happens all the time. I think there's an appetite to review whether the ward system should happen or not."

"The complication is Mullewa. Under the current implementation, Mullewa ward councillors exist at the discretion of the Minister. It expires in 2019. Because wards are supposed to be 'one vote - one value'. But they get two councilllors for 500 electors. Tarcoola has two councillors for 5800 electors. It's not even close to 'one vote - one value'. So in 2019, applying the principles as it stands in the local government act, there will be no more Mullewa Councillors. So let's start getting our heads around what that looks like, what's going to happen."

"And this is why I want to have these conversations. As council we should be talking about what we're going to be doing next year, in two years, in five years. And not sitting there having round tables, you know, about old mate's driveway or old mate's shed. I mean issues will come up. But what we should be doing as council is working on policies or local laws that prevent these things from happening ever again. How do we set a policy strategy, how do we set a direction that will guide us into the future, so that whenever there's a lime sand mine again, it's dealt with here? We don't have to keep having public unrest, marches, petitions. Generally petitions and marches only ever happen when you haven't set your policy framework correct."

Do you think in the future in will make sense for Chapman Valley to join the City of Greater Geraldton?

Shane paused and chuckled. There's a bit of history over this now delicate topic.

"There are no plans at the moment..." Shane began to respond in a predictable, politically sensitive manner.

"I don't think there's an appetite for Geraldton residents to consume any of Chapman Valley, and vice versa."

I pressed him a little more.

But as a business man, on paper, do you think it make sense?

"On paper as a business man I would suggest west of the Moresby Ranges, particularly places like Park Falls and the like, would be better suited to being in Geraldton. I mean they're essentially an urban suburb. They live and work in Geraldton. They consume the City of Geraldton's resources. Is the rural part of Chapman Valley suitable for being in the City of Greater Geraldton? ... You'd view how successful the integration of Mullewa was with Geraldton. On paper there'd be an argument. But you'd need to look at what financial impact it had on the Shire if you took out the residential rate payers; would it make them unsustainable? So look, there's got to be discussions in that space going forward, but there's no timeframe at the moment. My focus at the moment is financial sustainability of our own city. Let's get our own house in order first, before we can even entertain the idea of taking on more."

What do you say to local businesses out there that are doing it tough?

"It's not a Geraldton thing. This is what happens too often, be it crime, economic downturn. Too many of the overly public social media types think we just live in this little silo, and the problems that we face in Geraldton are unique to us, and no one else has this."

"Nothing could be further from the truth. If you go to other towns, cities, around the state, they all claim to have the worst ice problem. They'll claim to have the worst crime. They'll have their own Facebook group that reckons it's hell on earth. Every suburb. Every town, has those."

"So what I tell business people is... My job as Mayor is to try and be positive, a confident message and a confident vision, for our city... to never talk the place down. And I wouldn't talk it down because I love the place. Hence I'm the Mayor. But the way I talk about things is in practical examples. If Woolworths is building a Supermarket in Wandina, they don't invest that sort of money unless their demographers and their economists who do this nation wide, the best people in the land, say 'this is a good place to do it.'"

"And what is the key factor to determine where a good place is? Population growth. That's what they're looking for."

"You've got Aldi and Dan Murphy's trying to come to Geraldton... I know they're multi nationals, and I know it's about buying local. I get that, I do. But what you need to do is look at these enterprises using significant resources doing demographic studies before they decide to invest, and they're looking at coming here. The development approvals at the City are at I think the second highest on record for the last financial year. That's not building applications, that's dollar value. These are big numbers, these are big times. This year we're going to see Beresford Foreshore, Olive Street, Town Towers..."

In conclusion

So a year has now passed with Shane Van Styn in the chair. There are policy changes evident at the City of Greater Geraldton, which City staff and Geraldton residents have mixed feelings about. It will certainly be interesting to see how the next few years play out, and if CGG can balance the books while improving tourism and providing the services we all want.

Shane Van Styn sees the big outcome of his first year as Mayor as the delivery of the Growth Plan for the City of Greater Geraldton.

But we've all seen plans before. The next challenge will be executing said plan.

Watch this space.

Crash NWCH closed both directions

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Major crash on NWCH near White Peak Rd. EXTREME CAUTION.

Highway closed both directions.

The following detours are in place:

Light vehicles should detour via Nanson Howatharra Road and Chapman Valley Road

RAV 4 Network and below should detour via Nanson Howatharra Road, Murphy Yetna Road, Moonyoonooka Yuna Road and Geraldton Mount Magnet Road

Other operators should refer to the relevant RAV Network and consider alternative routes to avoid the area

 

Emergency services on site

Exercise extreme caution

Mid West-Gascoyne Traffic Officers are seeking witnesses to a fatal crash that occurred north of Geraldton early this morning, Sunday 4 December 2016.

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Just after 3:30am, Police received a report of a head-on crash at the intersection of North West Coastal Highway and White Peak Road between a road-train truck and a tow truck.

Officers from Police, Department of Fire and Emergency Services and St Johns Ambulance attended the scene. 

The driver of the tow truck tragically died as a result of his injuries, the male driver of the road-train has been conveyed to Geraldton Regional Hospital with minor injuries.

Anyone who saw the crash, or the vehicles prior to the crash is asked to call Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000 or make a report online at www.crimestopperswa.com.au

A sad day: Geraldton's favourite bin man is retiring

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As a little kid, there's nothing more exciting than the noise of the rubbish bin truck approaching your home. You rush to the front door, and go outside to watch a huge machine with its claw arm grab your wheelie bin and pour out the contents. It then lowers the bin, and you look at the driver thinking he must be the happiest person in the world. 

Then that driver smiles at you, and waves. This makes the moment even more special, and you look forward to repeating the ritual next week. 

This was my routine as a child, and it became all three of my sons' routine each week. And we were super fortunate to have one of the best drivers ever service our homes in Geraldton. 

You've probably seen him around too. 

Zatie. 

Perhaps you remember a very popular post on Everything Geraldton a year or so ago, thanking him for going the extra mile. 

Zatie's employers spotted all the comments, and made sure he had a small thank you. 

Everything Geraldton has just been informed that Zatie is retiring this week from ToxFree, who currently handle the waste management in Geraldton. 

On behalf of myself and my sons, and the Geraldton community, thank you for your years of service and being a great ambassador for our community. 

Here's an update on that really dodgy bit of North West Coastal Highway

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If you've driven through the northern part of Geraldton near the Homemaker Centre along North West Coastal Highway within the last couple of months, you would have noticed the terrible state of the road. 

Many drivers have complained about the damage it is doing to their vehicles, especially in hot weather when the road literally melts. 

We asked Main Roads when the situation was going to be fixed:

When are repairs to this section of road to be carried out?

"Resurfacing works commence on the 9 December, with completion scheduled on the 19 December 2016."

What is the cause of the road being in such poor condition?

"Pavement repairs were applied to this section of the highway in June this year. Due to the cold weather, it appears the bitumen did not adequately bond to the gravel pavement and Main Roads will now move to permanently repair the damage."

Someone with a sense of humour added this sign recently, which accurately sums up the situation. 

Thanks Marissa Drummond for the picture. 

And here's some video of the road coming apart. 

Who is Lara Sadowski?

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If you've ever looked in the real estate section of a Geraldton publication, chances are you've come across Lara Sadowski's smiling faced. She's been selling real estate for the last decade in Geraldton, and has consistently been ranked as one of the most successful sellers. 

I first met Lara on the very week Everything Geraldton launched in 2012. It was at a business networking meeting. Lara happened to be chairing the meeting, and I remember clearly thinking 'wow, this person is pretty dynamic.' She had control of the room, confidence in herself, and achieved it all with a warmth and calm that made others feel comfortable. 

When I learned of her real estate sales success, I was not surprised in the slightest. Every time I've spoken with Lara since then, she's been equally engaging.

I have long had the goal of speaking with a number of active, successful, or interesting people in Geraldton, and learning a little more about what makes them tick. Lara was kind enough to grant me some time out of her busy schedule. 

As I sat down with Lara Sadowski in the Geraldton Property Team offices, a coffee was brought in for me. It was a Moccona. Lara sent it back and asked her staff to bring a "proper" coffee. 

As I chatted with Lara for the next couple of hours, I would learn Lara has no problem doing things the hard way if the result means a better outcome.  

Lara Sadowski was born and bred in Geraldton, a child of European immigrants. She says her parents were both very hard workers. 

She attended St Francis Primary and then Stella Marris, now called Nagle. 

Her original plan was to become a school teacher, but that didn't quite pan out. 

"I mucked around too much in year 12", she recounts. "So my TEE scores weren't high enough."

That sent Lara to TAFE to redo year 12, which was where she stumbled across dental nursing. 

"There were 250 applications, 15 positions, and I was the only country kid." The fact that Lara can remember those numbers so accurately points to her sense of accomplishment. 

A relationship back in Geraldton at the time made sure Lara did her best to land a position back home once her studies were finished. She worked in the school dental service upon her return to Geraldton. 

"The school dental service was very boring," says Lara, clearly not a fan of a cushy job. "Just checkups, fillings... it wasn't challenging. Because it was government as well, there was no drive to work."

The disconnection between her income and how hard she would work used to drive Lara mad.

"So I ventured out into private practice. I was working in the school dental service by day, and for Chapman Road Dental at night, with Jim Hu."

After the nurse working for Geoff Noonan at Chapman Rd left, Lara took the position, and was there full time for 14 years. 

But even that full time position wasn't enough to keep Lara from becoming restless. 

"While I was doing that job I was working at Video Ezy. I'd finish work at 5:30, jump the fence, literally, then work 6 to 9 at night at Video Ezy. I did that for about six years."

Lara's life philosophy begins to show through at this point. "If you want things in life you've got to work for them," she says. "I've always been one to get what I wanted myself." Her emphasise was on the I, not the wanted. "I haven't been one to rely on someone else to get it for me."

Lara also spent time working at Price Attack, and running a night time dental nursing course.

So how did Lara find herself going from dental nursing, plus two other part time jobs, being an owner of a real estate firm?

It seems it may have simply been a case of noticing what someone else had, and asking what she had to do to get that too. 

Lara says she had a "very very dear friend", named Natalie, who at the time was working for Kalazich Smith Real Estate. Lara couldn't help but notice that her friend's income was a lot higher than what Lara was pulling in, despite working three jobs. 

"So I approached Warren Kalazich and asked 'What do you think if I got into real estate' and he said 'I think you'd be great.'"

Lara has a tenderness in her voice when she recounts her conversation with Warren Kalazich. "He was a dear family friend, and he backed me financially. It was a roll of the dice for him." Even today, Lara still looks to Warren as something of a mentor. 

Within the year Mr Kalazich retired and sold the business. 

Around that time Lara made the move to Geraldton Property Team, having been approached by the owners at the time. She didn't leave immediately to join GPT, due to a goal of staying the full 12 months to give herself the best chance of winning Rookie of the Year in sales. Had she moved offices early, her sales count would not have carried over to her new employer. 

But the transition to GPT wasn't perfectly smooth. Some internal issues and office conflict resulted in departure for GPT before the full 12 months was done.

But Lara still managed to win Rookie of the Year, "and came third for the whole of Geraldton," Lara recalls. Quite the feat for an industry newcomer. 

But while those who didn't know Lara personally would have only seen an extremely successful sales rookie, with a growing income, plenty of employment prospects, and a bright future, Lara's private life was going through a very rocky time. 

Lara's father, a local business personality, took his own life. This had a strong impact on Lara, and not too long after, Lara also lost her marriage. Coupled with a change of employer and the stress involved in leaving her previous place of employment, she clearly had a lot to deal with. 

So how did she cope?

"I reset my whole life, and outlook and everything. I went on a few courses, personal development courses, Cre8. I also went to a lot of real estate courses and seminars on my own. I'd jump on a plane and go to Sydney. I really just started to broaden my mind."

"So that was about 12 months of soul searching, but I was still doing very well in real estate. My career had taken off big time."

"And then I met an ag pilot."

Tim Greenaway was his name. 

"So life is back on track. I met this amazing man."

"He was over here flying, doing some jobs. We met and fell in love. He moved over from Byron Bay and he started real estate with me. He wanted to give up the flying because it was dangerous, you're flying low, power lines... health wise it wasn't good for him."

"So he gave it up, started real estate with me. And he came home one day and said 'look, a farmer just wants me to do a quick job, it'll be some quick cash'. "

"That was the last time I ever saw him."

It was a Tuesday in September 2010, when the crop duster Tim was flying crashed near Northern Gully Road, in Chapman Valley. 

My attempts to convey what someone must have felt using written words are sometimes completely futile. This is one of those times.

"I took four weeks off. The office was very supportive."

Having said that, Lara admitted her P.A. left upon her return to work. So that was another setback.

But something odd happened upon her return to work. She was able to hang on to all her clients. And in addition to that, new clients came on board. Lara said it was because people saw her as a strong person, who had overcome such a tragedy and still kept moving forward, that they sought her out to be their real estate agent. 

I questioned whether she knew this for a fact. 

"I'd have people ring me for an appraisal and I'd say:

'Why did you call me?' 

'Well your partner died in a plane crash didn't he?'

'Well, yeah.'

"So it was the feedback of my determination to move on with my life... see I could have hung my boots up, Jason, and said 'I'm not doing that any more.'"

I asked, "Was it a conscious decision (to not quit), or was it just never on the cards?"

Lara responded in a flat, calm voice. It was a tone that was vulnerable, and lacked any inflection, emphasis, or meter. It was the kind of somber tone you would use in a confessional with a priest.

"I had to work very hard mentally to do that."

Very. Hard. 

That it didn't come easy for Lara, someone gifted in so many areas, reminded me she is human. Financial or business success is no insulation from the trauma of life. It was no given that she would manage to get out of bed each day after such a loss. Yet that was the path she had chosen. 

We chatted about professional help after dealing with traumatic events. "In life we bottle things up, and that's why everyone has melt downs. I mean, no one escapes break down. I was never diagnosed as someone having a mental breakdown, but you know in yourself ... when you're not your usual self, and you think 'wow, this is not me'. So when you speak to people, professionals, who know what questions to ask, it's amazing how good you feel."

Lara continued on in her sales capacity at GPT for two years, then discussions began regarding succession planning. Lara Sadowski, along with David Potiuch, and Mairi and Jim Quinn, would end up becoming the new owners of GPT. 

Even as an owner, Lara still works in a sales role within Geraldton Property Team. 

Part of chatting with Lara was an attempt to learn who she was outside of work. What I learned was that Lara doesn't ever really stop being Lara the real estate agent. 

"I love it. Any team member can call me any time. I work seven days a week."

Lara said her and her partner, Warrick Nevill, will work every single day for eight weeks, then perhaps head to Perth for the weekend for some time off. 

But she admitted she still enjoys some downtime, and shared of her new tradition with Warrick to try and catch a movie together on a Thursday. Lara acknowledged that if she was married to someone outside of real estate, the marriage would fail. 

Some downtime.

"Certainly I've got more work-life balance since I've been with Warwick, which is the last four years." She calls Warrick her best friend, and enjoys being able to work with him. 

They say if you find a career you love, you'll never work a day in your life. I guess I was surprised to actually meet someone so passionate and committed to their profession that they didn't really try to switch off from it. 

"My work is my passion, it's my life."

An update on the Yellow Submarine

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Back in September 2015 CGG said:

The City of Greater Geraldton is advising the public that the ‘Yellow Submarine’ located beside the Geraldton Visitor Centre will be moved into a secure storage facility to safeguard it during the construction of the Multi User Facility and Youth Space in the West End of the CBD.

The submarine will be securely stored off site until funds have been sourced to complete its restoration and relocation.

When we originally shared the information about the Yellow Submarine, residents were concerned about whether or not it was actually coming back to the foreshore.

Here are some of the comments from that Facebook post:

But Mayor Van Styn was quick to reassure the doubters that it would indeed be back:

By February we were still getting swamped with enquiries from concerned locals wondering where their Yellow Submarine had gone.

Some were relieved to know it would be heading back soon, some still doubted. 

After hearing about the submarine for some time, EG asked the public if they still wanted it returned. The results were overwhelmingly in favour of it being returned to the foreshore, as promised. Click here to read some of the 279 comments. 

But Mayor Van Styn sure seemed to have changed his tune.

Everything Geraldton asked the City of Greater Geraldton what the current situation was with the much beloved Yellow Submarine.

 EG: What is the current status of the yellow submarine and what is the time frame for it being returned to foreshore?

CGG: The Yellow Submarine was removed from its former location to make way for the Youth Precinct Playground and has been stored at the City’s depot.

The submarine had suffered extensive corrosion damage because of its proximity to the ocean and will require substantial remediation works to make it safe.

The City is currently liaising with a community group who wish to remediate and incorporate the yellow submarine as an entry statement in a community rest area off of the highway.

No decision has been made in relation to its long term use. 

EG: Are you able to clarify which Highway is being referred to, and how far out of Geraldton this rest stop is, or is it in Geraldton?

 CGG: No response.

Update: Response from CGG: The highway being referred to is Northwest Coastal Highway north of Geraldton and it would be in an existing rest stop close to town.

THE NOT SO YELLOW SUBMARINE - BELIEVED TO BE LATE 60'S / EARLY 70'S. SHARED BY CATHERINE BRADY ON LOST GERALDTON

Some interesting facts about the Yellow Submarine, from the plaque that stood beside it:

The Yellow Submarine was made available to the City of Greater Geraldton by Geraldton local Max Cramer, and was restored in 2008 by Maicon Engineering with funding provided by Lotterywest.

This submarine was invented by another Geraldton local Severn Graham, who was commissioned to invent a prototype cray fishing submarine for the M G Kailis Fishing Group.
The vessel was submerged for its inaugural launch in Geraldton on September 6, 1969.
The submarine was designed to test the feasibility of establishing a fishery for green crayfish which abound in the tropical waters north of Learmouth. The submarine never entered operational service as it was discovered that gas emissions from the batteries caused major technical problems.

A 9cm thick laminated Perspex viewing port fitted into the box of the submarine was designed to enable the two-man crew to navigate and manipulate external fishing equipment.

The submarine became an icon in Geraldton and was painted yellow after the Beatles famous song. Severn Graham made two prototypes, one of which has been donated by the original owners to the Derby Museum.

Regarding the Geraldton hospital upgrade promise from the Nationals

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Last week the National Party made an announcement pertaining to the Geraldton Regional Hospital. Their full media release is at the end of this article. 

Paul Brown, current state upper house member and National Party candidate for the lower house seat of Geraldton in the upcoming state election, stood on the steps of the local hospital and promised that if the Nationals are elected at the March 2017 state election, they will spend $115 million of Royalties for Regions money on an upgrade to the Geraldton Regional Hospital. 

However, it's clear that the National Party have no chance of being elected to form government in their own right, and this being the case, we questioned whether the promise was meaningful or not. 

The Liberal Party and the Nationals have a strange relationship in Western Australia. While they have a coalition of sorts, they avoid using the term "coalition" as much as possible, and prefer to call their agreement an "alliance". They're bedfellows when it suits, and often opponents when it comes election time. 

The Labor party likes to paint the Nationals and Liberals as essentially the same choice, claiming the Nats are as culpable as the Liberal party for the lack of action of any hospital expansion over the last eight years. 

However, National members argue that the fact that an expansion is even needed on such a young hospital, can only be Labor's fault. It's a wonderfully messy political argument, and I'll do my best to walk you through it. 

First, a quick rewind for newcomers to Geraldton. 

Geraldton had a new hospital built back in 04/05. 

As far back as 2001 (and earlier) the Gallop Labor Government had been promising a new hospital to the people of Geraldton. Back in 2001 $35 million had been allocated for building the new hospital, and later in the year this figure increased to $39.5 million. 

By 2004 when development started, cost estimates had increased to $48 million. This meant the new health facilities in Moora were shelved to make funds available for the new Geraldton hospital. This number became $49 million in statements from Labor candidate Shane Hill in the run up to the 2005 state election, which Labor won.  

It's often quoted around Geraldton that the old hospital used to have more beds than the new one does. Even Paul Brown (Nationals) is on the record as saying that when the new hospital was built it was "essentially half the size of the hospital it replaced."

But is it true that the new hospital is half the size of the old one?

Here's what we found from a Q and A in WA Parliament from 2006:

Extract from Hansard [COUNCIL - Tuesday, 4 April 2006] p1046d-1047a
Hon Nigel Hallett; Hon Sue Ellery

GERALDTON HOSPITAL - BED CAPACITY
3253. Hon Nigel Hallett to the parliamentary secretary representing the Minister for Health

  1. (1)  What was the bed capacity at the old Geraldton Hospital?

  2. (2)  What is the bed capacity for the new Geraldton Hospital?

Hon SUE ELLERY replied:

  1. The bed capacity at the old Geraldton Hospital was 88 (accommodating multi day and same day patients) with a bed average of 58 in 2003/04 and 53 in 2004/05.

  2. The current bed capacity of the new Geraldton Hospital is 78 and on the completion of stage 2 of the redevelopment in July 2006 will be 88 (accommodating multi day and same day patients). Since the opening of the new facility in September 2005 the bed average is 54. 

Certainly it may still be argued that the new hospital may be undersized, but it seems a stretch to say it was half the size of the hospital it replaced.

Nevertheless, upgrading the Geraldton hospital has been a hot topic for the last few elections, both state and federal. And there's been a fair bit of chatter in WA Parliament recently on the matter, as we head into election season. 

Here's a question in Parliament from MLC Darren West regarding the Hospital from 14 September:

Hon DARREN WEST to the minister representing the Minister for Health: 

I refer to the conflicting statements made by the Premier and the Minister for Health about the priority of upgrades to Geraldton Regional Hospital—GRH. 

  1. (1)  Is the stage 2 upgrade of GRH a priority for the Barnett Liberal–National government? 

  2. (2)  If yes to (1), when will construction of the stage 2 upgrades commence, when will construction commence of a mental health facility, and when will the co-location of St John of God Geraldton Hospital and the Geraldton Regional Hospital commence? 

  3. (3)  Have any funds been allocated in the 2016–17 budget for these works; and, if yes, how much? 

  4. (4)  Have any funds been allocated in the forward estimates for these works; and, if yes, how much? 

  5. (5)  If no to (1), why not? 

Hon DONNA FARAGHER replied: 

I thank the member for some notice of the question. 

  1. (1)  Further redevelopment of the Geraldton Health Campus is a priority. 

  2. (2)  A business case is required to be developed for consideration by government before time frames are determined and funding allocated. The concept master plan for Geraldton Health Campus includes enabling the potential future co-location of a private provider. 

(3)–(4) No.
(5) See answer (2). 

So in a nutshell, despite the Geraldton Health Campus redevelopment being claimed as a "priority" by the current state government, no funding has been allocated for it nor has any business case been done on the merits and needs of such a redevelopment. 

Here's a statement made by National Party leader Brendan Grylls on 12 October 2016 in Parliament:

"The Geraldton Hospital, which was built by the Labor Party in its term in government, is now too small and the community is calling for a bigger one. It got that decision wrong and did not futureproof Geraldton, which is why so much criticism abounds of the Labor Party’s time in government from 2001 to 2008. It could not make the right decisions, and now, less than eight years on, we are talking about needing to invest again. That is classic policy failure when a party does not plan and does not get it right."

Here's a recent statement made to Parliament by Labor member Darren West, Member for the Ag Region:

20 October 2016

"In 2005, a new hospital was opened to replace the 1960s version that had served us well. That new hospital was built always with the intention of expansion, because Geraldton is one of two regional cities that have a private hospital; the other being Bunbury. It is important that both those health services remain viable and provide a service to the public. If we had built a massive hospital in Geraldton, it would have affected the viability of the St John of God Geraldton Hospital. The Geraldton community thinks it is important to have both hospitals, so a decision was made in 2000 to build stage 1 of Geraldton Hospital small enough so that there is capacity in the town for the two hospitals combined on a scale that enables the private hospital to continue to function and not be closed. There would be no real gain to the community if one large hospital was built and the other closed. It was always intended there would be a stage 2 development and that other services would be added to that hospital. It is a fantastic facility. There have been criticisms about it being too small, but I think the people who say that are quite insular and narrow-minded in their thinking."
...

"The Labor government had a plan for health service delivery in Geraldton and delivered on that plan, and that is a very important point to make. The contrast with this government is that it does not really have a plan. It has committed to a lot of things and not delivered them. I refer to the front page of The Geraldton Guardian of 6 September 2013. A very firm commitment was made to the people of Geraldton. I am holding up that front page, which shows the chap on the left, who is now the Leader of the National Party, and the fellow on the right, who is the Mayor of the City of Greater Geraldton. They made, as the headline states, a “Last-Minute $120m Hospital Plan” and if elected, they would build a hospital in Geraldton. They were duly elected and we have not seen a new hospital built in Geraldton."

...

Nonetheless, I saw that as a positive. I was told that consultation was underway and that it would be done in conjunction with the Mid West Development Commission and the Department of Health. Off we go—the review was undertaken about a year ago and was due to be finished in February. With that in the back of my mind, I started to wonder: Where is the review? What has happened? What are the outcomes? On Tuesday, 18 October last week, I asked: where is the review? I was told that the review could not be tabled because it was not finished. A review of health infrastructure in Geraldton that was due to be finished in February is still not completed. Not only have we gone from a plan to a review, but we cannot even manage to finish the review eight months after it was due to be completed! I guess members can work out why I am starting to be sceptical about the government’s commitment to health service delivery in Geraldton.

In Parliament yesterday—Wednesday, 19 October—I asked when the review had begun, because I wondered if it had actually really begun, and why there had been a delay and what funds may be available in the budget process for this important piece of infrastructure in Geraldton. Can members imagine my surprise when I found out yesterday, eight months after the review was due to be finished, that there is no funding available? There are no allocations available in the budget or the forward estimates for this piece of infrastructure that was a central part of a plan in 2013, which was then subject to review but now will not happen at all because there is no funding in the budget. The public gets very cynical when members of Parliament make promises that they have no intention of keeping and walk away from them. Of course the Geraldton community is upset about this government’s handling of the health portfolio and the notion of Geraldton regional hospital stage 2. I am quite convinced that before the next state election the government will go back to this plan. There will be a plan. Even though there is no money and there has been no review, there will be a plan. Hon Paul Brown has already made utterances about $50 million for a hospital in Geraldton, but I can tell the Geraldton community that it is not true because I have followed up the plan, I have followed up the review and I have asked the questions—there is no money. It is not a priority for this government. I think that is very sad. The community is not only missing out on an important piece of health infrastructure that is due, but it is also being dudded. 

Paul Brown responded to statements made by Darren West in Parliament:

The member absolutely knows that those comments are misleading, given that the person standing to the right of the Leader of the National Party, Brendon Grylls, was a candidate for the federal seat of Durack at the time, not the mayor. He was running in a federal election and he was making a commitment to the people of Geraldton and the people of Durack to partner with the WA Nationals and the Leader of the National Party, Brendon Grylls, and go to Canberra, if he was elected to the seat of Durack, and forcefully argue the case for funding for Geraldton Hospital. He did not get elected. No matter what the member on the other side might say, he did not get elected. Melissa Price, the Liberal candidate, was elected as the federal member for Durack.
The reason the Nationals’ candidate did not get elected was that the Labor Party chose to preference against him. Only two people, the Leader of the Nationals and Shane Van Styn, who was a candidate for Durack, made a commitment to the hospital. If health services and the expansion of the hospital in Geraldton were such a high priority, as the member continues to say all the time, why would the Labor Party not commit to the only person who made a commitment to the hospital during the federal election? At the end of the day, when he ran as a candidate for Durack in the 2013 federal election, the Labor Party preferenced against him. When the member stands up and says that he did not keep the commitment, it is misleading for him to suggest that at the time he was running as a candidate for mayor. He is now the mayor, but that was not the commitment that he made. He made the commitment as a candidate for Durack. He was not elected. That election commitment was not able to be kept because the Labor Party preferenced Melissa Price. 
...
Interestingly enough, I will tell Hon Martin Aldridge where the former Labor government got the money from. It got the money with a budget blowout, which meant that the Moora Hospital did not get built at that time. It used $6.3 million that was supposed to go to the Moora Hospital. The budget blew out so much because of union activism. The unions need to be fed and watered, and they need to have something to put back into the Labor coffers as another election commitment, because they got fed and watered. The Labor government chose not to build Moora Hospital. The people of Moora had over seven years saved $360 000 of their own funds to contribute to the hospital, and the hospital was pulled out from under them. Moora Hospital was delayed by many years because those funds went to the over-budget, time blow-outs and service and size reductions delivered through the then new Geraldton Hospital. I quote an article that appeared in Farm Weekly at the time —
MOORA shire president Michael Bates has called on country people to stand up for their rights and be more vocal in seeking funding for vital community services, following last week’s shock decision by the State Government not to fund the town’s new $6.3 million hospital. 
...

Rather than Labor Party members standing up here and in public on many occasions, lauding themselves about funding a new hospital, they should be absolutely embarrassed. They should be embarrassed. The only reason the Geraldton Hospital was built was so that Geoff Gallop, a boy from Geraldton, was not run out of town; he could actually walk the streets of Geraldton safely without being run out of town. The former Labor government did so well in building that over-budget, over-time hospital with a reduction in specialist services that it was kicked out. It actually got kicked out. Everybody thought it did such a good job after it had completed the hospital that it lost that seat at the very next election. 

Regarding Stage 2 of the Geraldton Hospital, Paul Brown continued:

Rather than Labor Party members standing up, patting themselves on the back, and pointing the finger at us, they should talk about stage 2 of Geraldton Hospital. It was never designed and never planned for. The Labor Party was in government for eight years. In the 2008 budget, there was not one penny in the forward estimates for stage 2—the magic pudding that Hon Darren West keeps talking about. There were no plans, no designs, no drawings and no funding. Over eight years in government and over the four years of the 2008 forward estimates for the former Labor government’s last budget, there was not one cent put towards stage 2. It was a magic pudding. Hon Darren West keeps talking about it; it is a figment of his imagination. As a result of the lack of specialist services, we now have two or three Royal Flying Doctor Service flights a day going backwards and forwards to Perth delivering patients for specialist care, and there is increased demand on the patient assisted travel scheme. The footprint for Geraldton Hospital extends over Carnarvon, Meekatharra, Mt Magnet and Wiluna in the north midlands area. Those services cannot be provided from Geraldton because Labor members did not build the hospital big enough, they went against the wishes of the people of Geraldton, and they blew out the budget. They are a disgrace and an embarrassment. 

The person who currently holds the seat of Geraldton, Liberal MLA Ian Blayney, said recently to the Geraldton Guardian that he expected the matter to be settled during this term of Government. 

But time is running out, and, according to Darren West, the report that was promised by February is nowhere to be found. 

As you can see, Labor are arguing that the Nats should have done something by now based on their previous promises, Nats are arguing that it's Labor's fault that anything even needs doing, and the Libs seem to be quietly dodging the issue as much as possible, presumably either because there's actually no money to spend on the hospital, or that they want to make their own bold announcement closer to the election. 

We had a chat with Paul Brown regarding his promise to expand the Geraldton Regional Hospital. (Answers edited for brevity. Questions from Everything Geraldton in bold.)

An improved hospital has been promised in the past. Why didn’t Minister Terry Redman make it happen over the last three years?

There was no commitment made in the past. The previous commitment that everyone keeps referring to is the commitment by Shane Van Styn  when he was running for the federal seat of Durack. He did not win that seat. Melissa Price won that seat, and has not been able to achieve any funding from the Federal Government. In fact, last year when I met with Susan Ley, Minister for Health, and Melissa Price was at that meeting, she categorically ruled out any funding from the Federal Government into the Geraldton Regional Hospital. 

... Shane Van Styn was a candidate when he made that election commitment; he didn't win. So therefore, it was a Federal Election campaign commitment, he was unsuccessful, so this is my commitment. Terry and I made an (earlier) commitment of $50 million. We were looking for dollar for dollar funding from the Federal Minister, and at that time she ruled out funding. So now, a year later, I have been able to convince Terry (Redman) and Brendan (Grylls) of the need, and certainly I've listened to the people of Geraldton and the Mid West and they are demanding an upgrade.

If we are elected next year, we will ensure that through Royalties for Regions funding that ... we move immediately ahead with the redevelopment and expansion. 

Shane (Van Styn) also ran for the (State) seat of Geraldton at the last state election, and he also didn't win that, granted. But he also brought up "vote for me if you want the hospital upgraded"... Now Shane didn't win that election, so you could hardly hold Shane accountable, however... 

Shane was a candidate, and the difference is I am a member of Parliament, and I've been representing this area for four years and I've spoken to the people... I've been able to go and convince my Nationals colleagues and the Minister for Regional Development. So this is a commitment that's not made in a vacuum, we have a great understanding of the need, and we've made a $115 million commitment to the people of Geraldton and the Mid West. 

If I'm not successful, I'd be saying to you and to the people of Geraldton you need to go and speak to Ian Blayney and Lara Dalton (Labor candidate) and see what their commitments are to the people of Geraldton. Ian has been in office for eight years, and has been able to achieve zero focus on development of a hospital. I've been able to convince my partners and my colleagues in Government at the National Party to invest in the hospital. 

If Terry Redman, the Minister for Regional Development, has his fingers on the purse strings for Royalties for Region funding, couldn't he have funded the hospital redevelopment over the last three years?

We've funded an enormous amount of hospital infrastructure across regional Western Australia; Busselton, Bunbury, Albany, Esperance, Kalgoorlie, Merredin, Narrogin, Northam, Katanning, Carnarvon, ...Karratha, Port Hedland Health Campus, and we've also introduced the Southern Inland Health initiative... to improve the health outcomes of people in the Wheatbelt. So I don't think anyone can say we haven't done enough in the health space. I would say, what conversations has Ian Blayney had with the Minister for Regional Development about focussing attention on to Geraldton and the health outcomes for Geraldton?

The Nats won't win Government in their own right. Isn't this commitment a waste of time unless the Liberal party also back it?

We're a balance of power party. We secured the balance of power in 2008, and with the balance of power we were able to secure a billion dollars a year for regional WA through the Royalties for Regions funds. We have fundamentally changed ... investment into communities in our regions. That is what balance of power brings. Balance of power is a very powerful bargaining chip when someone is looking at forming government with us after the next election. All indications are the Nationals will have the balance of power after the next election. We will use that to ensure a better outcome for regional WA. 

If we win the balance of power, then we are in a fantastic negotiating position. 

If the Nats win balance of power, but do NOT win the Geraldton seat, will Terry Redman still make the hospital upgrade happen?

That's a conversation you would need to have with Ian Blayney. My commitment is, if I win... 

I have it on very good authority, from Brendan and from Terry, that he (Ian Blayney) has never had a conversation with them, about investment into Geraldton. 

Hospital promises are starting to feel a bit like Oakajee to Geraldton residents. Every election, federal or state, we see photos of politicians standing in front of the hospital making commitments. Why should people pay attention to this announcement from the Nationals?

Because this is the first commitment I've made. I'm based here in Geraldton. My family lives here. My kids go to school here. I live, work and play in this town. I am leaving a safe upper house seat that I could sit in for the next 20 years, to run for the seat of Geraldton. This is my commitment to the people of Geraldton...

Shane made a commitment as a member for Durack, and he wasn't successful. The people of Geraldton and the Mid West need to look at that. They didn't back Shane, they backed Melissa (Price, Liberal party), and four years later we're still having a conversation about the Geraldton Regional Hospital when she said it was the top of her wish list. She has not been able to go and get funding...

A better hospital ultimately will mean better health outcomes for Mid West residents. What do you say to locals who feel like something as important as their HEALTH seems to have become a political negotiation tool?

Well I don't believe it has become a political negotiation tool. I've made a commitment. They can see that for what it is. I've made an honest, transparent commitment, so has my leader, Brendan Grylls. Terry Redman has supported that being Minister for Regional Development. And on the weekend, our whole party membership at the convention unanimously supported redevelopment of the Geraldton Regional Hospital. That is now National Party policy, not just a promise from me and Brendan. Take that for what it is. 

It's not a political football. I'm not into horse trading with the Liberals or Labor about this. I've made a rock solid commitment... 

If it comes to it, are you saying you're willing to form Government with Labor if the Liberal party won't come to the table on this matter?

We haven't ruled anything out. We've had eight years of good partnership with the Liberal party, but we have not ruled out forming government, and we are happy to negotiate with all those parties. That will be up to the leadership of the party to determine what that outcome is. All I will say is Mark McGowan has said categorically he would not form government with the National party, but we have not ruled that out ourselves. We are a balance of power party, and we seek to use the balance of power judiciously, for the best outcome for regional WA. 

Shane Van Styn appears in photos of your recent announcement. Was he there in his capacity as Mayor, or as a Nationals member?

In his capacity as Mayor of City of Greater Geraldton. He is no longer on the executive of the Nationals. He is the Mayor, and he was invited by me as the Mayor of Geraldton, because this is a very important announcement for the people of Geraldton. 

Media Statement from Paul Brown: 

The Nationals WA commit $115 million to Geraldton Regional Hospital

October 28, 2016

The Nationals WA will commit $115 million of Royalties for Regions funding to the expansion and re-development of the Geraldton Regional Hospital if elected at the March 2017 State election.

The Nationals WA Candidate for Geraldton Paul Brown MP said the funding would facilitate the immediate expansion of ward space for additional beds, reconfiguration of the clinical work space, modernised surgical theatres, an expanded Emergency Department and improved car parking and access points, to cope with the increasing demand in Geraldton and across the Mid West.

“Upgrading the Geraldton Regional Hospital has been a long-held priority for the Geraldton community and surrounding Mid West Region which is serviced by the hospital,” Mr Brown said. “The community has spoken and The Nationals WA have listened.

“Only The Nationals WA, as creators and custodians of Royalties for Regions, can be trusted to deliver this important project.”

Mr Brown was joined by Leader Hon Brendon Grylls MLA for the announcement in Geraldton today ahead of The Nationals WA 2016 State Conference.

Mr Grylls said the announcement was just another example of The Nationals’ strong commitment to improving healthcare in regional WA.

“The Nationals WA believe all West Australians, no matter where they live, should have access to quality healthcare,” Mr Grylls said.

“This is why our team has worked hard to deliver vital upgrades to regional hospitals in Kalgoorlie, Albany, Busselton, Karratha, Esperance and Carnarvon thanks to Royalties for Regions.

“There are also additional upgrades earmarked for Manjimup, Northam, Collie, Merredin, Narrogin and Katanning through the half billion dollar Royalties for Regions-funded Southern Inland Health Initiative.

“These investments are transforming health in regional WA and improving liveability of communities for residents.”

Mr Brown called on the Federal Government to match The Nationals WA’s funding commitment for the full redevelopment.

“It’s time for the Federal Government to return some of the $4.7 billion of GST it has taken this year alone, to ensure this vital upgrade and expansion can be delivered,” Mr Brown said.