- Resident of Stonnington for over 53 years
- Practiced as a Barrister and Solicitor in the City of Stonnington and CBD for over 40 years
- Lives in North Ward with his wife Angela
- Served as Councillor from 1983 to 1992 in the City of Prahran
- Served as Mayor of City of Prahran in 1989/1990
- Has held numerous voluntary and non-paying positions in community, educational, legal and commercial areas
- Continues to provide pro bono legal assistance to many Victorians and in particular many in the City of Stonnington
- Member of Law Institute of Victoria, Southern Solicitors Association, Liberal and other associations
- Director and Co-Founder of International Women’s Foundation of Commerce and Industry (IWFCI)
- Co-Founder of HACCI and Member of other community associations
I am asking for your vote to be an elected candidate for North Ward City of Stonnington in 2020 during this difficult and uncertain period. I stand for a fresh start and renewal during Covid-19 and beyond.
- Opposing the proposed 2% increase in rates in the proposed 2020 Stonnington Budget, and lower rents for Prahran Market
- Instead of increasing rates by 2% as proposed, I advocate that we reduce rates by 3-5% having a net effect for the first year a reduction of 5-7% for the benefit of all rate payers in Stonnington
- Propose to keep the budget for the following three (3) years steady depending on when Covid-19 restrictions are lifted thus providing significant relief over a four (4) year period in excess of 20-25% to all rate payers, be they residential or commercial in the City of Stonnington
- Scrutinizing and opposing all unnecessary rate increases to ensure that Stonnington rate payers are not burdened by continuous, unnecessary and unsustainable rate increases
- Scrutinizing and opposing all excessive spending on the budget, particularly during Covid-19, 4-year term and beyond
- Providing rate relief and extended terms of payment for outstanding rates without charging interest to rate payers in genuine extreme hardship circumstances
- Ensuring that the Pensioner Rate Subsidy continues, and help persons in genuine hardship, particularly in difficult times of the Covid-19 pandemic to give them an opportunity to recover
- Strongly opposing over-development and unsympathetic projects in the amenity that do not respect heritage, residential amenity and neighborhood character
- With my experience in Law, Courts and VCAT, I am able to use my many years of knowledge in these areas to help Council and Councilors to strengthen planning policies and oppose over-development and unsympathetic proposals and permits for such developments
- Improving strategic planning policies to recognize and protect heritage, amenity and neighborhood character
- Joining with rate payers and residents in objecting to over-developments and unsympathetic developments put forward by Developers to the detriment and character of Stonnington
- Fighting against proposed removal of objection and appealing rights for residents that may be affected by developments
- Checking on all heritage listed properties in Stonnington to ensure that these are not demolished or their character vandalized and issuing appropriate repair orders to maintain them at a high standard
- Maintaining the parks and gardens and all green spaces
- When the opportunity arises, to acquire more land at strategic locations and neighborhoods for local parks and children playgrounds
- Maintaining the footpaths, streets and avenues of our City
- Planting more appropriate trees in our parks, gardens and streetscapes
- Ensuring that our streets, parks and gardens are properly lit for security
- Where possible, use solar energy and LED globes to eliminate dark areas so that residents and visitors may move around in more safety
- Ensuring that more funds from the budget is spent on North Ward to meet the needs of rate payers and residents as a large proportion of the funds are collected from North Ward
- Upgrading and beautifying streets, parks and gardens in North Ward
- Upgrading streets, footpaths and crossovers on roads to make it easier for senior citizens, young people, pedestrians and cyclists
- Conducting regular inspections of the assets in parks, gardens, streets and footpaths and removing graffiti that degrades the character of North Ward and Stonnington as a whole
- Effective delivery of core services including better street cleaning, graffiti removal, drainage, footpath and road maintenance and overall effect high level of landscaping in North Ward and Stonnington as a whole
- Providing better bicycle lanes, repairing and maintaining these at a high level for the safety and enjoyment of bicycle riders of all ages
- Ensuring that the footpaths have easy to navigate ramps for our seniors and persons of disability on scooters or wheelchairs
- Opposing any on-street paid parking on any Stonnington road, particularly Chapel Street, Toorak Road, Malvern Road & High Street
- More bicycle facilities
- Ensuring parking priority to residents and visitors in residential streets
- Keeping through traffic out of our residential streets to relieve residents from noise, congestion and pollution
- Improving facilities for transport by car and supporting car sharing schemes
- Improving bicycle lanes dedicated areas for bicycles and improving and repairing the surface of bicycle lanes for safety and security
- Improving and expanding bicycle infrastructure and the overall quality to be better enjoyed by all bicycle riders of all levels and abilities
- Introducing lighting through solar or modern LED which is far more cost effective to light up commercial, residential and park areas for safety and security of rate payers, residents and visitors
- Striking a reasonable balance between residential and commercial interests so that a win/win environment is put in place for the welfare and benefit of residents and commercial businesses
- Communicating and supporting groups of residents and traders to mitigate and resolve issues and reach consensus on difficult issues
- Mediating on difficult issues and striking a reasonable balance between the interests of residents and the interests of traders
- Holding regular local area forums when issues arise so that issues may be resolved by way of consensus for the benefit of residents and traders
- With the vast experience in Mediation over 40 years, I am able to mediate and assist residents, traders and commercial interests to reach consensus and amicable solutions going forward
- When necessary, convening mediation sessions on neighborhood and/ or trader issues to reach accord and amicable resolution on issues
- Supporting residents, businesses and traders to reach accord by providing reduction in rates and providing payment options over a reasonable period of time and not to charge interest on extreme genuine hardship cases
