Speech on the appointment of Deputy Mayor

Spoken at the 2 October 2025 Special Council Meeting

Firstly, I would like to congratulate Nathan Shanks on his election as Mayor. Nathan has worked hard in-front and behind the scenes since stepping into the acting role, and I congratulate him, and his family, on his successful victory and wish him all the best in the role.

I would also like to acknowledge candidates Paul Little, and particularly Councillor Cody Davies on a successful campaign. I admire Cody’s commitment to promoting our town, and my hope is that this continues, and I look forward to continuing working with him as a councillor for the remainder of the term.

I think we can all agree that this is a community where everyone should belong. I nominated for council, at the age of 20, recognising that young voices were not being heard perhaps as much as they should at the local government level.

I advocated on the platforms of tourism, youth and community – and I am proud to say that, together as a council, we have made progress in these areas increasing belonging – whether it’s from tourists visiting our town feeling belonging because they have a place to park, to community groups feeling like they belong because their elected representatives supported them in finding a home.

Together, we’ve proven what can happen when we work together with communities that are feeling like their views don’t belong – from the Vadilous Code Amendment and Hemaford Grove phone tower proposal, to working with sporting communities to ensure they belong in adequate facilities within our community.

While we’ve made significant progress during our time on council, I have noticed there are other members of the community who don’t feel like they belong, and as a representative of the whole community, I feel I have a responsibility to ensure they can belong.

For the final 14 months of this council term, I am going to make it a priority that these voices that are potentially being excluded from the conversation, can belong. Those with a disability, members of the queer community, First Nations people, those from migrant communities, and – women.

We’ve got some important decisions coming our way in the next year or so, and I think it’s crucial that the views of allmembers of our community are heard, so that everyone feels they belong in our town today, and tomorrow.

That will be my priority as Deputy Mayor. Supporting the Mayor, elected members, CEO and staff, while equally ensuring the views of those who perhaps aren’t as loud, can’t speak at our meetings, or are too scared to engage in fear of being ignored, do feel like they can belong in Gawler.

It has been an honour to serve this role for the past 3 months and now that I’ve learnt the ropes a little bit, I’d be extremely grateful to continue as your Deputy Mayor, ensuring all voices of our community are not just heard, but genuinely included.

Let’s continue building a Gawler not just where people live, but where they belong.

Thank you.