By Parker McKenzie
Knox City Council’s new Deputy Mayor Jude Dwight wasn’t expecting to leave the Monday 14 November council meeting with a new position and title.
“It was a bit of a surprise,” she said.
“I put my hand up to indicate interest and wasn’t expecting to be elected to either position.”
Representing Chandler Ward, which covers The Basin and part of Sassafras, Deputy Mayor Dwight was first elected to council in 2020 and it is her first time serving as either mayor or deputy.
Speaking to the Star Mail, she said recently Knox residents have needed to adapt to the impacts and repercussions of global issues.
“You’ve got higher cost of living and interest rates, obviously the impact of the pandemic on families, education, healthcare, businesses and the changing climate as well,” she said.
“The anxiety and pressure that these things give rise to are very apparent at the moment.”
The Knox City LGA covers the suburbs of Upper Ferntree Gully, Ferntree Gully, Lystersfield, Rowville, Wantirna, Wantirna South, Bayswater, Boronia and The Basin.
She said there are a lot of pressing needs in the Knox area that will create challenges for the council over the next year.
“We do hear from our businesses and residents that you’ve got interest rate rises on relatively large mortgages in a lot of areas,” she said.
“It’s not a new city anymore. You have aging infrastructure and the condition of the roads in the weather that we’re experiencing.”
Deputy Mayor Dwight said representing Chandler Ward has been an “eye-opener,” despite having lived in The Basin for 18 years.
“I’m often hearing stories of change and also those stories of people continually working in the background that a lot of us don’t even know about,” she said.
“That’s been the biggest reward in this role, finding those people in the community and learning their stories.”
The Victorian government is investing almost $5 billion over ten years so that children across the state will have access to two years of funded kindergarten programs starting this year, which has created pressure on local government to ensure there is enough infrastructure and access to services.
Deputy Mayor Dwight said alongside the kindergarten reform, another challenge is mandated reforms of curbside waste and kindergarten services.
“The challenge is putting Knox in a really strong position to meet those requirements under the reforms, that’ll be a really big challenge in the coming 12 months,” she said.
“I’m excited about what we can achieve through the waste reform. I’m very passionate about trying to get that separation of waste happening and to encourage some strong behaviour change that will help us drive a circular economy.”
Knox City Council will introduce food and garden organic bins by the middle of 2023 after the Victorian State Government introduced a new policy mandating a new four-bin waste and recycling system separating combined food and garden organics, glass recycling, plastic, paper, cardboard and metals recycling and residual household waste by 2030.
She said one area she is excited about is Knox’s participation in the Eastern Alliance for Greenhouse Action.
“It includes 64 councils across the state and we were able to launch planning for a safe climate campaign,” she said.
“That one seeks to tackle climate change through the planning system by introducing strong and enforceable climate change commitment into it.”
