Dr Ross Kerridge announces Newcastle lord mayor challenge
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00:00Okay, well, today I'm announcing my candidature as an Independent for the seat of the Lord Mayor of Newcastle.
00:10Why? Newcastle needs change. The Council needs to change. It has not done well to what's been going on.
00:22This is our Newcastle. That's our community. That's the group that I'm leading is our Newcastle.
00:30What are our problems? One, leadership. The current Council is indulging in bickering, inciting, political point scoring and indulging their schoolyard fantasies of being federal politicians.
00:47We even had, at one stage, the Lord Mayor describing one of the other Councillors as a carcass hanging on a meat hook.
00:55This is not the sort of Council that Newcastle needs. We need to work together.
01:01Second, new financial accountability. The rates in Newcastle have risen dramatically.
01:08There's something like 70% higher in the last 10 years and yet the Council is sending signals that they want to have another rate increase.
01:19This is not acceptable. The cost of living crisis is all over the country and people are suffering.
01:25And what makes it worse is that the financial records of the Council are now designed in such a way that you can't work out where the money has gone.