Shire of Cuballing seeking to fill final council seat with candidate call-out for extraordinary election

While most local government elections around WA have been finalised, the Shire of Cuballing is seeking nominations for the council after a lack of candidates triggered an extraordinary election. With one seat remaining to be filled, Shire of Cuballing president Eliza Dowling hopes the extraordinary election will attract nominations from some of the Shire’s young community members. “I think 50 per cent of our residents are over the age of 55 so it’s hard to get younger people in,” she said. “If we could get some young people in who could say ‘this is what we need to have, as a young person in Cuballing these are some initiatives we’ve got’, that would be fantastic.” Ms Dowling said although there was a bit of paperwork involved before nominating, the opportunity to help guide Cuballing was well worth the effort. “If people register their interest they get a whole pack that tells them about what it means to be on council, and they also have to do an induction,” she said. “There is also quite a lot of compulsory training to do, which is quite a lot to do and it can seem like a lot, but on the other hand, local government is a great thing to be involved with. “There isn’t really anything like it where you can make decisions that immediately impact your community. You’re about as close to the action as you can get.” The Shire of Cuballing has six council seats and has functioned with five sitting members since the resignation of Peter Dowdell in February. Ms Dowling hopes less-formal monthly meetings held earlier in the day will help attract prospective council members. “People don’t always come to Shire meetings, which is fair enough,” she said. “We’re about to shift the timing of our meetings to 3-6pm, then be at the pub for dinner, so if people want to come and find us they’ll know that we’ll be there once a month.” Candidates for the seat must be electors in the district and registered owner-occupiers on the State electoral roll. Nominations close at 4pm on November 2. “If no one nominates, council can then go and ask somebody, but I don’t think it will come to that,” Ms Dowling said. “All you really want is somebody who’s got the community at heart, and at the moment our whole council is very much like that. “Everybody wants what’s best for the community. It’s a really nice council to work with.” Nominations can be lodged with the returning officer at the Shire of Cuballing from 2pm-4pm, Monday-Friday.