THEY say a week is a long time in politics.
As Mayor Teresa Harding approaches the 100th day of her second term in the top job, she spoke exclusively with Local Ipswich News on the current state of play in Ipswich City Council, her hopes for succession, and the milestone.
“It’s a tremendous honour to be Mayor of Ipswich,” Cr Harding said.
“Not many times in life do you have a privilege like this, that you have the trust of the people.
“The last election my primary vote increased by 4.5 per cent and there were 44 new mayors across 77 local councils, so that tells me that the community want me to continue to be open, transparent and continue to put them first.
“The people of Ipswich want to have a leader in their city that they can be proud of.”
After being elected in 2020, Cr Harding came into a council chamber reeling from one of the country’s most controversial councils, a situation she was well aware of.
“On the 21st of August 2018, when the Queensland Parliament dismissed the City Council, in the gallery there were four Ipswich residents and I was one of them,” she said.
Cr Harding said what she could never have prepared for was the impact of Covid-19, the floods of 2022 and the hail storms that have plagued the city over recent years.
In the role of Chair of the Disaster Management Group, she needed to set the tone as a leader.
“I had my disaster management training to be the Chair of the Disaster Management Group before I was actually sworn in – I asked for that to happen.”
During the current term, the first two ordinary Council meetings have had their controversies – the two most prominent when Cr Harding was voted out as Chair of the Local Disaster Management Group, and then when Cr Pye Augustine was not named Chair of the Community and Sport Committee despite having the level of experience to be the prime candidate for the role.
“In Council and any democracy, no elected representative gets everything their own way every time,” Cr Harding said.
“I’m on record to say that I don’t think there should be dismissed councillors on our council.
“My slogan in 2020 was ‘a fresh start’ and I feel as though we never got that fresh start with them there.
“My view has been to implement a number of transparency measures and we are the most open and transparent council in Australia.”
Her first 100 days of this term have seen the North Ipswich Reserve receiving funding from the State Government, with Cr Harding also meeting with the Prime Minister, Minister for Local Government Megan Scanlon, and Federal Minister for Local Government Kristy McBain to discuss the future plans for the city.
“It’s important to get back to business,” she said.
“In the last four years we’ve (the city) received more money from our advocacy than we have for a long time.
“Not only the money for the North Ipswich Reserve, but the Mount Crosby Rd interchange has also been sitting there for 20 years and now we’ve got the money for it.
“There’s an old saying, ‘if you want to make an omelette you’ve got to break a few eggs’, so we’ll have to break a few eggs and keep these projects progressing.”
Cr Harding said that her time in the military had taught her the importance of succession planning.
“Last term, it was important for me to have committees and for the councillors to be committee chairs, to have ownership of a portfolio, to chair live stream meetings, to be in the community – not just as a divisional councillor.
“Because most likely our next mayor will come from that group. I want to hand over to a safe set of hands that will do the right thing for the community and the people of Ipswich.”
