Yipirinya School principal Gavin Morris wins Alice Springs Town Council by-election
The new member of the Alice Springs Town Council has been declared. Here’s the three things he believes are needed to drive the regional town forward.
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Alice Springs has elected its newest member of the town council.
Gavin Morris, an educator and father of four, has come out on top in a by-election to choose the council’s ninth member.
The by-election comes after the resignation of Jimmy Cocking earlier this year.
Mr Morris is a former education lecturer at Charles Darwin University who moved to the Red Centre last year to become the principal at Yipirinya School.
He received almost 4300 votes – about 1000 more than runner-up Sean Heenan.
Mr Morris focused on three issues during the campaign – staffing, accommodation and youth crime.
“The challenges we need to address are around staffing – attracting and retaining good quality staff that we need to drive and sustain economic development,” Mr Morris said.
“Secondly we need to address the accommodation crisis in Alice Springs.
“We need to attract the right people to Alice Springs, we need to keep them here.
“Accommodation is crucial.
“Thirdly, we need to address youth crime and anti-social behaviour on our streets.
“Our businesses should be open.
“For economic sustainability and business development to occur youth crime is something we need to address.”
Alice Springs Mayor Matt Paterson said he looks forward to working with Mr Morris.
“I congratulate Gavin on his election to the 14th Alice Springs Town Council and welcome him into the role,” Mayor Matt Paterson said.
“This Council has been hard at work delivering for the community across the past year and have achieved some brilliant results, including developing a strategic plan to take us to 2030.
“We welcome Gavin to the team and look forward to working alongside him to continue making Alice Springs a better place.”
Mr Morris will be sworn in at the council’s next general meeting on November 22.
Hugo Wells, David Marzec and Wayne Wright were the three other unsuccessful candidates.
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