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Katie Woolf spoke with candidate for Litchfield Council Mayor Mathew Salter · 360 with Katie Woolf

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: We're going to kick things off right now because joining
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: us on the line is Matthew Salter, one of the candidates.
• 0:06
  Speaker 2: Good morning to you, Matthew.
• 0:08
  Speaker 3: Good morning Katie.
• 0:09
  Speaker 2: So are you yeah? Good mate?
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: Now, obviously we've sent you through the questions. You've got
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: three minutes to answer.
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  Speaker 2: Are you ready?
• 0:17
  Speaker 3: Old your horses? You said I had five?
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: Oh?
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  Speaker 2: Did they tell you five minutes?
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  Speaker 3: All right? Well, okay, Look, if I get too blurring,
• 0:25
  Speaker 3: you come in.
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  Speaker 1: No, that's all right, we'll see how we go. I reckon,
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: We'll probably be all right. I do apologize, Matthew. I'm
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: not too sure whether that miscommunications happened or good mate,
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: We'll see how we go.
• 0:36
  Speaker 2: We might make it four. Can we meet in the middle.
• 0:38
  Speaker 3: Oh, what a good idea.
• 0:39
  Speaker 2: Let's do that.
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: I'm always open to negotiation. Let's go, Matthew. All right,
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: let's do it.
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  Speaker 3: Now.
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  Speaker 1: What job were you in before deciding to put your
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: hand up for this election?
• 0:51
  Speaker 3: Look, a lot of people would recognize me around town
• 0:54
  Speaker 3: as a school teacher. I've been teaching for twenty years,
• 0:58
  Speaker 3: mostly Camila College which is now Hate Prey. But before that,
• 1:04
  Speaker 3: I was a property manager, and not many people know this.
• 1:08
  Speaker 3: They came from Sydney and I looked after approximately fifty
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  Speaker 3: factories and property management was a really good thing when
• 1:17
  Speaker 3: you think of council because it taught me accountability. My
• 1:22
  Speaker 3: job was to collect the rent for the landlords, and
• 1:25
  Speaker 3: if I didn't collect the rent, I was in trouble.
• 1:29
  Speaker 3: It also made me repair. We were in charge of
• 1:33
  Speaker 3: all the maintenance, so I was responsible for that and
• 1:36
  Speaker 3: we had to do rent reviews based on the CPI.
• 1:41
  Speaker 3: And a lot of people have been asking me because
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  Speaker 3: I'm in my campaign, I've been saying that the rate
• 1:46
  Speaker 3: should go up not by five percent every year, but
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  Speaker 3: by the CPI. And the CPI is the cost of
• 1:53
  Speaker 3: the basket of goods last year compared to the cost
• 1:56
  Speaker 3: of the basket of goods this year if you go
• 1:58
  Speaker 3: to Coles Willis or somewhere like that. And the CPI
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  Speaker 3: has been running at one percent for the last seven years.
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  Speaker 3: It's been very light. But the council keeps on putting
• 2:09
  Speaker 3: the rates up by five percent every year. And that's
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  Speaker 3: one of the things which my experience as a property manager,
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  Speaker 3: I sort of felt, my goodness, this isn't the right thing,
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  Speaker 3: This isn't looking after the people of rich Field.
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  Speaker 2: Now why have I actually firstly, how long have you
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  Speaker 2: lived in Lichfield?
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  Speaker 3: Thirty years? And why did you earn ninety yep?
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  Speaker 2: And why did you decide to put your hand up.
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  Speaker 3: I've been on council for a long time and say
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  Speaker 3: what I've done is able to have a look at
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  Speaker 3: from the inside, and I wasn't happy with the way
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  Speaker 3: things were happening. We used to have a council back
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  Speaker 3: in twenty twelve where there was a lot of locals
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  Speaker 3: on council. Russell and was the CEO. He was born
• 3:02
  Speaker 3: and bred up here. He'd been on council in the
• 3:05
  Speaker 3: very first council of nineteen eighty three. I think it
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  Speaker 3: was so there was a continuous rink from the original
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  Speaker 3: days right through to the current and what we need
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  Speaker 3: to do is to have a look at our history
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  Speaker 3: and work out what the best thing is for the
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  Speaker 3: people because a lot of the people are still the
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  Speaker 3: same people as well. There's many people in all area
• 3:32
  Speaker 3: that would have been there for twenty years or so.
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  Speaker 3: And what I'll object to is overseas in the States
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  Speaker 3: or even from Dalin applicants coming in and taking on
• 3:44
  Speaker 3: the council role and top tunning. Oh, we don't do
• 3:48
  Speaker 3: things like that. The computer system is terrible. We need
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  Speaker 3: to upbread at two hundred thousand dollars their toes and
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  Speaker 3: I'm seeing there going Hold on, I've seen how we
• 3:58
  Speaker 3: do it in the past. We do things on the
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  Speaker 3: smell of an early way. We don't have Tea do
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  Speaker 3: things the way go and do things or Parnasty or
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  Speaker 3: Brisbane or Melbourne. We do things our way. We do
• 4:13
  Speaker 3: it sustainably. At the end of the financial year, the
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  Speaker 3: books have to balance, and that's one of my things
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  Speaker 3: I'm absolutely passionate about.
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: Well, Matthew, we will go to five minutes because we
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  Speaker 1: are otherwise we're going to run out of time. Mate,
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  Speaker 1: I want to ask you what do you see as
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  Speaker 1: being the big issues for the Litchfield Municipality.
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  Speaker 3: The biggest issue by far, and it's not sexy, but
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  Speaker 3: it's the finance. We need to make sure that the
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  Speaker 3: books were balanced. Owens were maybe last last month and
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  Speaker 3: where did the financials start? On page one hundred and
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  Speaker 3: I said, this isn't the first time I said the
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  Speaker 3: men's you we're interested in finance. I wasn't getting pushed
• 5:00
  Speaker 3: further and further back. It needs to be the numeral
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  Speaker 3: one issue. And the other part of this, the finances
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  Speaker 3: that really upsets me is the man consent and says,
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  Speaker 3: well this, look, we're not going to have a comprehensive
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  Speaker 3: list of counsel spending anymore. I was bluing the face.
• 5:22
  Speaker 3: I'm saying, what are you talking about? Learn No, you
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  Speaker 3: don't need to have a list of all the spending
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  Speaker 3: the councils done. And she puts herself up as being transparent.
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  Speaker 1: Matthew, we've only got about fifteen seconds left. Why should
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  Speaker 1: people vote for you, mate?
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  Speaker 3: Well, you can hear in the boss. I'm very passionate.
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  Speaker 3: I'm lucky that I've had a finance background. I know
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  Speaker 3: how to handle CEOs. I've been on community boards for
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  Speaker 3: many years. I'm young and fit to bring them back
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  Speaker 3: to type financial management.
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  Speaker 1: We have run out of time, Matthew Salter. Great to
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: speak with you this morning. Thank you so very much
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  Speaker 1: for your time and.
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  Speaker 2: All the best.
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  Speaker 3: Thank you for the five minutes.
• 6:08
  Speaker 2: Thanks mate,