Whitsunday mayoral candidates reveal feelings before council election
As voting for the Whitsundays’ next mayor reaches the final hours, one candidate has boldly said it will be a close call between him and one other. Find out what he said.
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Battered by the heat but still handing out flyers, Whitsunday mayoral candidates manned the pre-polling stations while voters went in and out as fast as possible.
An Electoral Commission of Queensland spokeswoman said half of the Whitsunday region electorate had already voted as of noon Friday with 12,000 ballot papers filled out.
Independent candidates for mayor Ry Collins and Philip Batty stood next to each other at Proserpine’s Freemasons Lodge.
Mr Collins said there was not yet a clear-cut winner in the race as no candidate was already in office campaigning.
He said the local elections were particularly important as the mayor had a “lot more power than the local MPs”, Whitsunday MP Amanda Camm and Dawson MP Andrew Willcox, as they were both opposition members.
“They can take up issues but they have a hard time getting it through,” Mr Collins said, adding a mayor’s role was to make sure state and federal governments did not forget about the Whitsundays.
“An independent mayor has a better opportunity to make an impact, because they can engage with both sides of government,” he said.
Mr Batty said it was difficult to predict how the masses had voted in the lead-up to Saturday.
“There’s some days where you feel like you’re on top and then the next day not,” Mr Batty said.
“It’s going to be close and it’s going to be interesting.”
Mr Batty said if he won, his primary goal was to ensure the council “works for the people”.
Richard Evans, who has split his campaigning efforts across Bowen and Proserpine, said his “biggest foe” was not the other mayoral candidates “but the apathy of people”.
He said members of the community should become informed before using their voting power at the booths, and predicted it would be a close call between him and Mr Collins.
He added it was a shame that four of the six divisions were uncontested in the 2024 election.
The Whitsunday Times tried to contact the fourth candidate Peter Hood to ask him how we has feeling hours out from the big day but was unsuccessful.
Voting booths will open from 8am on Saturday and officially close at 6pm with counting to start thereafter.
If you haven’t already placed your vote, you can learn more about each candidate with our full list here.
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