SCONE Chamber of Commerce & Industry will host a ‘Meet the Candidates’ evening at St Luke’s Hall.
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All Candidates for the Upper Hunter Shire Council Elections have been invited to attend to face a grilling from interested members of the general public.
While seven of the candidates have previously served as Councillors, several are new faces.
Candidates both veteran and novice will be invited to introduce themselves and outline their key concerns, followed by a moderated Q&A session mixing questions from the floor and pre-submitted questions.
Chamber president Ben Wyndham suggested that pre-submission of questions would allow candidates to prepare answers more fully and help voters make more informed decisions.
“We’re going to encourage everyone to come along and ask a question; provided everyone is polite and respectful this should be a very informative session.
“Pre-submitted questions will probably be answered better because the candidates will be prepared; it will also allow us to cover a wider range of topics in a controlled way, give the audience a better view of the policies and avoid the session getting bogged down on one thing.
“It should be a really interesting night.”
The session will be held on Wednesday, August 31, from 6.30pm.
Upper Hunter Shire residents can submit their questions: via email: questions@sconechamber.com.au, the Chamber’s Facebook page or mail at PO Box 100, Scone, NSW, 2337.
Meanwhile, a referendum will be held as part of the Local Government Elections on September 10.
Voters will be asked the following question:
“The mayor of the Upper Hunter Shire is currently elected annually by the nine (9) councillors.
“Do you want to change to the direct election of the mayor by the voters of the Upper Hunter Shire Council, for a four (4) year term, with the number of councillors (including the mayor) remaining at nine (9)?”
Yes or No?
