Meet the candidates
VOTERS shouldn’t be frightened to ask the hard questions of council candidates, the Residents Action Network says. The group, which held its first Meet the Candidates event in Wauchope last week, is hoping Hastings residents planning to attend the next two pre-election forums will spend some time coming up with meaningful, but succinct, questions for the Port Macquarie-Hastings Council mayoral and councillor hopefuls.
The second Meet the Candidates forum will take place in Port Macquarie, at the Port City Bowling Club tomorrow night, August 23, starting at 5.30pm.
Camden Haven voters will then get a chance to talk to the candidates locally on the following Thursday, August 30, at the Laurieton United Services Club, starting at 6pm. Organisers of the Wauchope forum said they were pleased with the event, attended by some 60 people. There were 24 council election candidates present at the event, out of the total 32 standing.
The organisers had allocated each candidate two and a half minutes to outline the reasons voters should elect them, to be followed by an open question and answer session.
Because not all 32 candidates attended, there was extra time available for questions from the floor, organisers said.
The overall impression from the event was very positive, a RAN spokesperson said, with the candidates seeming to be of high standard.
The council elections will take place on September 8.