I've lived in Newcastle and the Hunter Valley for 40 years. I do activism on particular causes and I've been running in elections, both federal and council, mainly to identify particular problems. I usually get about five or six thousand people vote for me, I think that's the best I've done. I like raising issues to the other candidates' faces, but because of COVID it's been a very strange election. Things have been put off. It's been fairly odd and there hasn't been any chance to quiz other candidates.

Why are you running for lord mayor?

I think I could make a very good lord mayor, but the way it is - anyone can actually stand and talk to the other candidates on an equal term before they're elected. It's interesting to see how they talk to the public. A couple of elections ago, there was a deal made between the Greens and Labor to get a special rates increase. I went to three or four candidates' forums with public press and neither of those two parties said they'd already made a deal ... once they became elected and had the numbers, rates [went] up to the highest they've ever been.

Can you be considered a serious candidate then?

It's fair dinkum. I've got as much chance as anyone else. But the way it stands, most people in Newcastle will vote Labor. You've got to wonder why, and I've got no idea. Then you've got the Liberals ... in recent times ... all up and down the coast they were done for corruption. This independent bloc, independent group, they're not independent at all. You're voting for a Liberal Party stooge. This goes all the way along. If you look at Steve O'Brien from Socialist Alliance, and look at his ad, you'd swear he is a Green. Because people don't have any idea, they just vote for who they know.

How has the council been performing in recent years?

There was no public input for how the council building was sold, and they've gone to where they are now ... in a city where office space is everywhere. As a removalist I know how much empty office space is in Newcastle ... yet they're paying top dollar for the tenancy of the new office. No one had a say in what was happening and what's more now the public is paying millions ... for rent. The people of Newcastle paid to build that council building, the roundhouse, it was the pride of the workers. It's a sham and a scandal.

What do you think the council been doing well?

They've been flush with money ... but a lot of this will dry up. They're just doing what council does, really. The big developments aren't being questioned. I'm moving people in and out of these big apartment blocks, and some of these buildings don't even have proper loading zones. I remember Newcastle ... it was like being in Sydney. There was David Jones and the hustle and bustle along Hunter Street, all the shops were full. This was 20 or 30 years ago, but now you go down there and it's like a retirement village.

What needs to change in Newcastle?

The biggest issue of all is the ammonium nitrate. This is scandalous to think ... 1.5 kilometres from the city centre you can have one of the biggest explosives dumps. Not that it has to be closed down, but if it's being used up in the valley - it needs to be made and stored up there. If it needs to be transported to other places, well it needs a port ... somewhere else. If this thing went up, it would make Beirut look like a firecracker. It's Merewether flattened, Jesmond flattened. It would be the end of Newcastle. It would only take a small missile. It's crazy.

What are some other local issues or services that need improving?

If you look at all the concrete streamways, the concreted culverts used to be creeks. A lot of is is falling apart, a lot of them have concrete cancer, so you have to start thinking do you go back to the old ways and plant them out, puts rocks in there and create some bushland, and redesign these waterways. There could easily be bushwalking tracking on these waterways. We could utilise that area a lot.

And also the ways the developers are just smashing down the trees, especially out along the Link Road near Cameron Park. At some point you have to say enough is enough. You can't just have the suburbs extend forever. The Link Road forests should stay.

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