By PEACE IJIYERA

 

THE Morwell River by-election results were announced last week, with Councillor Rob Moffatt voted the man for the job.

The Morwell River Ward has been without representation since former Cr Tracie Lund’s resignation in March.

A total of 6498 people enrolled to vote in the election, of which 4359 were considered formal votes and 135 (three per cent) were considered informal.

Prior to distribution votes, first preference votes were as follows:

  • Rob Moffat: 1565 votes, 35.90 per cent
  • Dean Sutton: 974 votes, 22.34 per cent
  • John Ellingham: 752 votes, 17.25 per cent
  • Guss Lamden: 635 votes, 14.57 per cent
  • Graham Lougheed: 433 votes, 9.93 per cent

After distribution of preferences results came down to:

Rob Moffat: 2527 votes, 57.97 per cent

Dean Sutton: 1832 votes, 42.03 per cent.

Cr Moffatt said he was feeling confident for a positive result as the votes were coming in.

“After the first round of votes, it looked like that we were well out in front. But it was always worrying what was going to happen with the preference votes and everything else,” he said.

To win the voters over, Cr Moffatt said he did his due diligence in connecting with the community to understand how best to serve them.

“I did do a lot of work … other than just advertising or anything like that, I got out and spoke to the people. I went to a few events and stuff like that. And sort of sat down with people to find out exactly what they wanted in a councillor to do in the area,” he said.

Safety and giving Morwell a facelift were the main things that locals were concerned about. Cr Moffatt said he’s committed to ensuring these two things happen.

“I’d like to promote that (Rose Garden) more to change around the image of Morwell. If that means to try and beautify Morwell in other areas like maybe up towards Mid Valley. So when you drive through, it’s not just one area you know that says Rose Garden, it’s actually has that image right throughout the town”, he said.

Cr Moffatt also spoke about plans to address antisocial behaviour seen in Morwell’s CBD and devise strategies to restore foot traffic in the area.

Thrown straight into the job, having to read briefing papers and attending his first council meeting on his second week on the job (August 24), Cr Moffatt said the transition has been “intense” as he has a lot to catch up on. He was also spotted at the Gippsland New Energy Conference (GNEC) last week.

Cr Moffatt will be keeping his day job as coffee supplier, but cutting back on some hours to “dedicate myself to what I’m doing a bit more”.

Largely, he is looking forward to working with the other Latrobe City councillors to see the prosperity of all the wards collectively.

FELLOW candidate, Dean Sutton, said though he didn’t win, it was a great learning opportunity, one he can use as leverage as he plans to appear in the ballots again in the 2028 Latrobe City Council election.

“I was pleased to sort of come second, that was my first time running … [it was a] difficult ward to contact really being a mix of sort of CBD, residential and farming which was quite diverse,” he said.

“It was an enjoyable experience, I got to meet some amazing people, and I guess it sort of ignited the interest in running in two years’ time.

“At this point, I would plan to nominate again and run and sort of have the opportunity outside of a by-election to have a proper campaign and give it a go.”

Mr Sutton said there was some challenges in campaigning in a by-election that was a postal vote. Particularly missing the “opportunity to be in front of people as they were … coming in”.

Based on results, it appears that many individuals voted in order of the ballot. Entirely a suggestion, Mr Sutton believes he was “lucky to be draw two”.

“I think we look at the results, and we look at the ballot draw and it’s an assumption we make. I think sort of without testing that, it’s hard to sort of stand by that,” he said.

“But I think there is a large population that don’t necessarily understand the three levels of government and the power of their vote really and … what can be made or broken by having the right or the wrong person in that chair as their representative and their voice,” he said.

Until the next election, Mr Sutton said life and his activities in the community will continue as usual.

“I’ll continue in … my volunteer roles in the community and … advocate for the Latrobe City from the outside as a community member,” he said.

“I think a lot of people don’t realise that you’ve probably got more power to drive change as a community member than you actually even do as a councillor in the seat.

“It’s not a wasted opportunity. I think there’s still lots for me to do to contribute to the community from this position until … two years’ time.”

In past conversations with the Express, fellow candidate Graham Lougheed revealed he would also recontest in future elections.