Helen Blackburn announces bid for 2024 mayoral election

Citing the astronomical rates foisted on the region’s rural industry, community campaigner and fearless Bundaberg council critic Helen Blackburn stood in the middle of a sugar cane field and declared her candidacy for the 2024 council election.

Bundaberg Ratepayers Association president Helen Blackburn will run for mayor at the 2024 local government election.

The race for Bundaberg’s next mayor has begun with the announcement by Ratepayers Association president Helen Blackburn that she will be running for the top job in the March 2024 local government election.

Ms Blackburn got on the front foot from the outset, choosing a Burnett Heads cane farm as the location for her Wednesday, September 27 press conference announcing her mayoral tilt to remind voters of the lingering discontent among the agricultural community with rate rises experienced in previous council budgets.

“The significance of announcing on the cane farm was the fact that although the farmers were promised that they would get a CPI-indexed rates increase … back in 2020, the rates went up by over 245 per cent,” Ms Blackburn said.

“So I stand with the agricultural industry, it’s inherently important to the future of the region.”

Along with minimising rates increases, a key pillar of her platform as president of the Bundaberg Regional Ratepayers Association and 2020 mayoral candidate, Ms Blackburn’s priorities as mayor would include the preservation of heritage and improving the transparency and accountability of the council.

Ms Blackburn has frequently criticised the council for a lack of transparency in communicating with ratepayers, most recently in calling for the council to provide detailed costings of the $76 million Bundaberg Aquatic Centre.

“I certainly would be looking to encourage anyone that is a councillor to represent the people of the region into the council, not represent the council to the people,” Ms Blackburn said.

“So that’s where I would make a change, is to look at the focus being on representing what the community wants and by having more community consultation.”

Helen Blackburn was elected Division 4 councillor in 2016, and received almost 33 per cent of the votes in a campaign against incumbent mayor Jack Dempsey in the 2020 election.

Ms Blackburn was more tight-lipped on her views on other targets of criticism in her tenure as BRRA president, council’s “good news” website Bundaberg Now and CEO Steve Johnston.

While Bundaberg Now was labelled a “misleading and inappropriate” use of council funds and resources in a February 2023 post on the BRRA Facebook page, Ms Blackburn said any changes to the site were “not a decision for one person alone”.

“I think it is too soon to be saying anything about any particular department, and for what it’s worth I have no plans on doing anything to cut any service or facility for residents of the region,” she said.

“That’s certainly not my intention coming into this candidacy.”

On Mr Johnston, whom she has often criticised for exercising delegated powers independently of council oversight, Ms Blackburn said “certainly the Mayor and council under the (Local Government Act) are responsible for the tenure of the CEO,” but was not drawn on whether Mr Johnston would have her confidence should she be elected mayor.

“That wouldn’t be something that, should I be successful, I would be solely responsible for,” she said.

“I think it’s a decision that really does need to rest with the entire council.”

Ms Blackburn was elected Division 4 councillor in 2016, and received almost 33 per cent of the votes in a campaign against the incumbent mayor Jack Dempsey in the 2020 election.

Bundaberg born and bred, she has had a diverse career, including military service, working for telecommunications companies sand employing locals as a Bundaberg small business owner.

In comments made late on Wednesday, Mayor Jack Dempsey said Ms Blackburn’s announcement came as “no surprise as (she has) been acting under the pseudonym of a ratepayers association for some time”.

“After many years of persistent criticism, I hope to see this candidate shift her negative approach to positive policies which would benefit our community,” Mr Dempsey said.