About Me

A Phillip Island resident and a Gippslander born and bred, see my 6-point platform for what I stand for, what I will fight for, and how I will ensure your concerns are heard.

What I Stand For

Bass Coast Council needs an injection of capable new blood and new ideas. As ratepayers, you know it. With increasing population pressure on services, roads, parking and our beautiful coastline, we need a responsive council who has the community at its centre, and acts on resident’s concerns. 

Press

South Gippsland Sentinel Times: https://www.sgst.com.au/council/woodlands-anthem-fails-to-sway-dal-panelists

https://www.sgst.com.au/news/back-to-basics-they-say-as-council-elections-loom

Bass Cost Post: https://www.basscoastpost.com/your-voice/tim-obrien

My 6 Point Platform:

• NEW ovals/facilities for Phillip Island Football Netball club. The land is there, the club has waited nearly 40 years for promised new facilities – they have waited long enough!
  We can’t have another Council failing the Phillip Island community on this.
• COASTAL erosion impacting on Silverleaves (and elsewhere) must be a priority of Council. The Silver Leaves community whose properties are under threat, deserve better. Council must keep DEECA and the State Government on the hook on this.
• ENVIRONMENTAL protection for Westernport Woodlands to address the disaster of sand mine expansions (sacrificed for sand for Melbourne).
• A GENERAL rates cap and a fairer deal and better support for our farmers, and a rejection of inappropriate development.  The unique rural character of Phillip Island must be preserved and protected. The proposed half-baked Bass Coast Unlocking Rural Tourism Strategy (BURT), which threatens the unique character of the Island with ‘special use re-zoning’ for large scale tourism ventures, must be opposed. It will destroy the very thing that makes Phillip Island so special.
• DESIGNATED ‘safe routes’ – clearly marked along identified roads – for road sharing for e-scooters, e-tricycles and mobilty devices for elderly, school-age and community users.
• PEDESTRIAN walkways in built-up areas (so that families, kids and pooches need not walk on busy road shoulders).  

Your community is my community

I am a resident, Gippslander born and bred, writer and editor. My wife and I previously owned the Phillip Island Winery, experiencing at first-hand the challenges of business here.

My Commitment

I will work for the benefit of Phillip Island, the Phillip Island community, and for the broader benefit of the Bass Coast Region. I will work to ensure that council has the COMMUNITY at its centre, that it ENGAGE sincerely on matters that impact on the lives of residents in accordance with the highest principles of governance and ACCOUNTABILITY. That it DELIVER on its promises, and that it preserve and ENHANCE the unique character of our region, of our beautiful coastlines, woodlands, farmlands and lifestyle.