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patricia Hadley
Celebrant
Feature Interview
12 iNarrabri Magazine May 20th - June 2nd
For all your beauty needs
4/115 Maitland St Narrabri  6792 3538
Ron what motivated you to run for election
and how long have you been on council?
My motivation for being on Council was to serve
our community. At the time I was involved in the
family bus business and had good access to the
entire Shire and relevant issues. I’m currently in
my third term of Council (11 years).
You ran a very successful family business for
many years. How did this help with your tran-
sition into local government?
The family bus business allowed me to develop
good customer service skills and brought me
into contact with a wide cross section of the
community.
What skills, qualities and characteristics do
you believe people need to be worthwhile
community representatives on local councils?
Prospective Councillors need to be passionate
about their community with a holistic view of the
Shire, its challenges and not be motivated by
single issues or personal interests. Being a team
player, having good communication skills and
business acumen would be desirable.
All councillors have particular areas of respon-
sibility so what are some of your areas of ex-
pertise?
Due to my lifelong background in school bus
transport, both locally and Australia wide and
latter days driving road trains, I believe I have
a good knowledge of the Shire road network
and the challenges in maintaining and develop-
ing our road and bridge assets. I believe this is
Council’s core business despite being faced with
a diminishing funding base.
Which particular projects have you enjoyed
the most?
The major project that is ongoing is the posi-
tioning of the Narrabri Shire as an internodal
transport and industry hub, with the impending
arrival of the Inland Rail and the development of
a road freight network. In particular, the East /
West Heavy vehicle link via Culgoora Road is my
pet project into the future.
When coming onto council there must be a
thousand things to learn. Can you share some
of these with our readers?
You learn to be a good listener and a good
reader. Be prepared for stacks of reading and re-
search in either hard copy or the electronic form.
Be prepared for a steep learning curve on the
roles and responsibilities of being a Councillor.
All levels of government find it difficult to bal-
ance the books – is there a solution to this and
if so, what is it at the local level?
We are currently undergoing a self assessment
task initiated by the State Government called ‘Fit
for the Future’ that determines our viability or
not into the future as a Council.
What is starkly obvious is that our income is be-
ing constantly eroded from both the State and
Federal Governments whilst we are expected
to take up more and more of their responsibili-
ties without suitable recompense. It’s called ‘cost
shifting’.
There is no ‘silver bullet’ for this. We need to
constantly review expenditure, prioritise, identify
efficiencies and lobby for a fairer share of overall
tax revenue.
While you are a member of the Narrabri Shire
Council you obviously have strong ties with
the Wee Waa District. What are some of the
challenges you see for Wee Waa?
The major challenge for Wee Waa into the future
is our community’s almost entire reliance on ag-
riculture, either directly or indirectly, for employ-
ment. The combination of ongoing drought, lack
of stored water in the short term and new farm-
ing techniques requiring less labour has seen
a decline in population over time in Wee Waa.
When the seasons turn, as inevitably they will,
I believe we won’t see the population bounce
back to pre-drought levels. Tourism, the Inland
Rail, intermodal facilities and industry may pro-
vide opportunities for future employment.
Many rural local councils are represented by
our more senior citizens (retired business
people, farmers etc). Is there a place for the
younger members of the community and if so,
how can they get involved?
Certainly younger members of the community
can be involved in Council – we see evidence of
this in our current council. I guess it comes down
to time management, as you tend to have a little
more time as you get older once you get past
the major distractions of families and mortgages.
Council must take up a lot of your time, along
with your involvement in other local voluntary
organisations... so how do you relax?
Relaxation for me is spending time with the fam-
ily, friends, my Golden Retriever “Charlie”, Border
Collie “Edith” and travel. Despite my years on the
road in the bus business I still like going places,
seeing and experiencing new things.
Councillor Ron Lowder
Interview by Craig Jollow.
Narrabri Shire Council currently has 11 councillors (reduced to 9 at the next local election) repre-
senting the various demographics of our extensive rural community. Recently I had the pleasure
of interviewing Ron Lowder, one of our many hard-working local representatives. Born in Narrabri
and educated at Wee Waa & Narrabri, Ron has resided in Wee Waa all of his life. Few would have
a greater understanding of the complexities and challenges of council life or the difficulties in
representing such a broad and diverse community facing great change...
photo:
Chris Jollow