Shellharbour mayoral candidate Rob Petreski leads multigenerational Labor Party

Shellharbour mayoral candidate Rob Petreski will lead a diverse eight-member Labor Party into the local government elections with a swag of big ticket and everyday change policies in a bid to “do better”.

The technology teacher from Shell Cove said standing as a mayoral candidate and Ward D lead candidate was something he was working towards for a while.

“I was first elected onto council in 2017 and I believe there’s no shortcut to the top,” Cr Petreski said.

“I think you have to earn your stripes, and you have to get the lay of the land and understand how things work and then you can improve them.”

He said while it wasn’t possible to do everything for everyone due to Shellharbour City Council’s limited resources, the key was to ensure those resources were put to the best use.

“We need to make sure we provide that service and that infrastructure to the maximum value,” he said.

Cr Petreski said he was proud of the ALP team he had assembled to help achieve that, with a candidate in every age demographic, from their 20s to their 70s, and in each ward.

The team includes Maree Duffy-Moon and Louise Hogan in Ward A, Moira Hamilton and Sandra Mitrevski in Ward B, Lou Stefanovski and Hetty Cummins in Ward C, and Gabriel Beretov and Georgia Roff in Ward D.

“Council should represent its community, and at the moment I’m the youngest person in council, and I’m in my early 50s, so that doesn’t represent our community,” he said.

“If you look at the skills, we have multiple candidates with degrees, with technical qualifications, we have people with experience and qualifications in the community sector and caring professions.”

His own background lies in previously being a small business owner, TAFE teacher and apprentice trainer at state training services.

“Apprenticeships and lifelong learning, training and skilling people up is something that is a core belief of mine, and it’s something I want to instil in our organisation,” he said.

Cr Petreski said he had already helped formally establish an apprenticeship, traineeship and cadetship program within council.

He said now he wanted to look at apprenticeship programs and job creation in the electorate, working in tandem with the State Government’s announcement of 1300 new apprenticeship placements.

“That way we can tap into that resource, and it won’t be an extra burden on our ratepayers and residents, but it’ll be something we can add value to and boost our service levels as well,” he said.

Among his big-ticket policies were seeing construction of the Tripoli Way Bypass for Albion Park, which was being jointly funded by the NSW Government and council but he believed had been a “political football for way too long”.

“It has to go ahead, because what it’s doing is, it’s one, choking the businesses along Tongarra Road, and secondly, it’s holding us back in terms of productivity,” he said.

“If people have to wait in their car for half an hour to get down the road, then they could be putting that time to better use.”

He said with detailed design already started, it was important it now went ahead without delay.

Through his Local Labor Listening Tours, he said an everyday need highlighted was the return of yearly free bulky waste pickup for residents to stop illegal dumping.

“Sadly, there was one report … that said sometimes the fine for illegal dumping is cheaper than the tip fee you’d pay to get rid of that same waste,” he said.

“That’s where we need to look at our policies and say, how can we make this better?”

Next was the housing crisis, which he admitted wasn’t easily fixed, but could be better addressed by looking at how to unlock opportunities already available to ensure young people could get a foot in the door and workers could live and work locally.

“We’re working with the Planning Minister and Member for Wollongong Paul Scully in terms of looking at what we can do in master planning and better planning of land allocations that could be coming up as well,” he said.

Additional policies included improving the stormwater system by cleaning and unclogging creeks, estuaries and drains to better get rid of water, particularly in flood-prone areas to avoid insurances increasing for all.

He said while there were no silver bullets, they could help create change.

“It’s the little one percenters that make everybody’s life a bit better. We can’t fix everything, we can’t resolve all problems, but surely we can do better,” he said.

His final “wish list item” was an all-weather sports facility and all-weather outdoor multipurpose pitch after the past few years of heavy rains and COVID limited people’s access to outdoor activities.

“It’s not something we can totally provide from council resources, because we don’t have that kind of resource allocation, but what we can do is work with our federal and state colleagues to identify funding sources and put in strong submissions when they are available,” he said.

“Only Labor has the opportunity to deliver on all three levels of government. Those lines of communication can value add to the role as mayor.”

He said among his achievements on council were the introduction of a $47.80 pensioner rebate and a youth summit which helped inform council’s youth services plan.