Orange Councillors & Candidates

Gavin Priestley

Councillor Gavin Priestley

About Gavin

I have lived in an Orange City suburb for the past eight years.  I relocated from Sydney to establish a new division of Telstra called Telstra Country Wide.  I was the Area General Manager covering an area of 50% of NSW and established the office in Orange in Sale Street.  My previous work in Telstra were National positions including wholesale of communications services to other carriers both domestic and internationally.

My work with people in western NSW and Orange in particular made my decision to remain in Orange permanently an easy one. I find our town a vibrant and diverse community which is stimulating.

I ran unsuccessfully for the federal electorate of Calare in the last federal election which was a great and challenging experience.

I currently do consulting work for various Government groups on communications. This mainly involves assessing technical and regulatory issues and offering advice concerning lobbying State and Federal Governments to achieve satisfactory outcomes for various communities.

I also have a grazing property at Hargraves (between Mudgee and Hill End) on which over the past 24 years I have run superfine merino sheep which keeps my feet on the ground and gives me a great deal of pleasure doing practical tasks. I enjoy working with animals and being outside.

My hobbies (when I can get time) include flying light aircraft, photography and reading.

What I bring

My background is from the corporate business world and hence one of my key drivers is “corporate governance”. In the case of Local Government I am keen that the community has a complete ability to see and understand the reason for council decisions.

Both Scott Maunder and I are committed to transparency in council decisions.

This statement does not infer any concerns in this regard to previous councilors or their decisions but just to the fact that the citizens of Orange need to feel that they are able to easily see and understand how decisions have been made on their behalf. Nor do Scott and I have any concerns as to the expertise and commitment of Council Staff.

Both Scott and I have had significant experience in assessing major projects involving large capital expenditure with significant risk. We would like to think that this expertise would be of value to the council.

I would like to develop a long term plan for Orange which would include a range of options based on a very fluid future. These variations may need to include changing circumstances for our mining industry. It is important that we develop industries which will provide employment options for our future citizens. The alternative energy industry will provide a range of employment and development opportunities if we take the initiative now.

I believe Orange, with its university and technical training resources can lead NSW in this field.

I am also passionate about Health Education as I know that many of the chronic health issues faced by our community can and could have been prevented by education some time ago. Just consider how much the anti smoking campaigns have saved in misery and money in the Orange community already.

My three major priorities therefore are -

Transparency for the community council decisions
A plan for commercial development around sunrise industries.
A close involvement with council in health outcomes driven by education of the community.

How to make it happen.

Transparency

Council staff will be able to table their options well before council meetings so that the community can scrutinize the options that are on the table in front of councilors. For example the water issue need to presented as a range of options which would include the complete picture of options ranging from more storage to a plan to reduce usage. All options costed and fully explored.

Regional Development

I would like to work with appropriate industries, (for example alternative energy equipment developers) to jointly approach Federal and State Governments for assistance funding to establish their operations in the Orange area. This would also extend to the University of Sydney and UNSW as they have some highly skilled technical and cutting edge faculties in these areas. I would work to ensure Orange Council was the “glue” that brought these groups together in our area.

Health Education

There are groups established in the Dept of Health that we can approach to develop an “Orange Area” program which would range from the young to the senior citizens. This would cover as an example the healthy eating programs for the young to the weight or resistance training for our senior citizens and appropriate programs targeting our community’s needs.

In Summary:

Orange is a city with abundant opportunities which we need to get on and harvest now. I would like to develop plans which will make our community an Australian leader in regional development. There are significant changes in Australia and the world at the moment and I believe those changes provide those with vision unparalleled opportunities to cement long term growth and opportunity for their people.