Steve Gagen - Candidiate for Merri Ward

City of Hume Elections 2008

Steve Gagen:
Candidiate
for
Merri Ward

A Fairer Deal for the South

Broadmeadows, Campbellfield, Meadow Heights, Dallas, and Coolaroo are great places to live and raise a family, and we deserve much better services and facilities.

As a long-term Broadmeadows resident and Labor Party member, I understand local needs and share local concerns. We need a fairer deal from Hume Council. Our rates get spent on new facilities for Sunbury and Craigeburn, while we in the older, southern parts of Hume get overlooked.

Sunbury and Craigieburn pools are properly maintained and aren't leaking!

Merri Ward needs a local resident to stand up for the “Forgotten South”, especially those who rent. We need:

Better council facilities and services for both young and older residents
Broadmeadows Pool fixed and re-opened
More new jobs for locals to replace those lost
Heavy trucks and hoons off local streets
Clean, safe parks with no dangerous trailbikes
Less rubbish in our streets and open spaces
Longer weekend opening-hours for Broadmeadows Leisure Centre and the Library
A clean-up of graffiti and a prevention campaign

Remember, Voting is compulsory: please mark your ballot paper exactly as shown here to vote for a Fairer Deal for Merri Ward and the South.

A Letter from Steve to Merri Residents:

I am a member of the Labor Party and have lived in Broadmeadows for many years with my wife Heather. I run a local business and am in touch with how local people feel.

I have been concerned for a long time that Hume Council is not properly looking after areas such as Broadmeadows, Campbellfield, Coolaroo and Meadow Heights, in the old Broadmeadows Council area. The Council seems to find plenty of money for new projects in the North though!

It is a disgrace that the Broadmeadows Outdoor Pool has been closed - because of leaks - forcing young swimmers to go elsewhere, while the pools in the North are well-maintained and in daily use.

Councillors must give proper attention to the area they represent rather than spending their time and our money travelling overseas. Many do not even live locally!

If elected, I will work hard to fix these problems and get things moving. I have many years of experience as a scientist, and in government and private industry - I know how to get things done. I am a serving member of a Health Board, and a Justice of the Peace. I have also served on Neighbourhood Watch and local Community Groups.

You can see my policies above, where there is also a how-to-vote card.

As your Councillor, I will work for a fairer deal for the South.

Please note the Labor Party is not endorsing "official" candidates at this election.

Steve Gagen

An email asking me about my policies on the environment:

I recently received an email from a concerned voter called Natasha, who wrote:

>I have read your candidate statement for the Hume City Council local
>elections. I note that there is no reference to the environment,
>sustainability or planning issues. Can you please advise of your stance on
>these matters so that I can make an informed decision when voting, as I
>consider these very important issues at a local government level.

I thought that this was a very thought-provoking email, and it made me realise that these are areas that I feel passionately about, which I have not addressed properly in any of my election material. Here - in brief - is what I wrote back:

Dear Natasha,
Thank you for your thoughtful email. If you are referring to the 150-word
statement in the booklet, there is precious little opportunity to say much
at all in so few words! I think I may have said a little more about these
issues in my letter to constituents and on my website, www.gagens.com.

But the fact is also, in campaigning for the council, one has to
concentrate on issues that immediately affect the majority of people
- issues such as swimming pools, hoons on streets, etc.. Too many words
on the environement or planning would turn people off.

I quite agree that the environment and sustainability are of crucial
importance - they have been for me since I was a small child, and worried
what would become of the fish and the drowned trees when new dams
were built, and whether we'd run out of oxygen if we kept burning
coal and oil!

These concerns led me to become a biological scientist and to work
for some 20 years in the area of biological control. Unfortunately,
Mr Kennett closed our research institute, which both saw me out of a
job and made me think about politics for the frist time!

I think you will find we are in agreement about conservation and the
environment. I try to live as energy and resource frugally as possible,
and try to convert as many people as I can to the cause of environmentalism!

By planning, most people think of blocks of flats or town-houses being
built in their street. But it is much more than this. Proper urban
planning scarcely exists in Australia today, as far as I can see.
New developments are built which are non-sustainable, and - like
Roxburgh Park - are not even serviced by public transport even though
a railway line runs through the middle of the settlement!

There are huge gains that could be made by building appropriately-
designed houses, orientated to collect heat in winter, and not in summer,
with natural drainage and virtually no need for heating and cooling. I
have seen developments like this overseas, and to some extent in places
like Eltham.

So, to be brief, I am an idealist who believes passionately in
conservation and the environment!

That was a great question - it really made me think. And it made me realise that I need to proclaim these deeply held beliefs a little more!

I tried a Google search to see if any of my scientific papers might show up - they don't seem to have made it to the Internet! The only environmental link I can think of is this letter I wrote to The Age many years ago:

It all comes out in the wash

Oh, I am forgetting - I have written no less than three plays on environmental themes! And you can still find a reference to one on the web, a very free-adaptation of Banjo Paterson's Mulga Bill's Bicycle set in the time of Jeff Kennett's privatisation of everything. The play was staged by Moreland Theatre Company in 2004 as part of the Melbourne Fringe Festival.

As the Moreland Theatre Company website put it: Prefer bike paths to freeways? Concerned about inappropriate development? Tired of "get rich quick" schemes and and shonky sales pitches? Then this is the

play for you.

If you want to see a production of Mulga Bill's Bicycle the Hartwell Players will be staging it in 2010, I believe.

Meanwhile, please feel free to contact me on any election matter - I'd love to hear from you. My details are:

PO Box 3047 Broadmeadows 3047
Phone 9309-3010 (home), Mobile 0431 724332.
Email merriward@gagens.com.

One last thing - no, it' not Rolf Harris, it's a picture of me when I was an environmental scientist working in the field all week - with obligatory beard, of course! Sorry about the quality, it is from an old under-exposed slide. Also featured is a specimen of the black field cricket Teleogryllus commodus, which I worked on for many years. The cricket's the one on the right!

Authorised by Heather Yasamee 20 Glencairn Crescent Broadmeadows.