Meet the newly elected Shoalhaven, Eurobodalla and Bega Valley mayors

The people have spoken and the elected mayors of the Shoalhaven, Eurobodalla and Bega Valley have been chosen. Meet them here.

Mathew Hatcher (left), Patricia White and Russell Fitzpatrick have all been elected mayor.

After weeks of convincing voters to give them a chance, mayors across the south coast have been officially sworn in, with each returning and new leaders revealing their plans for their term in office.

Shoalhaven Council:

Patricia White has been elected Shoalhaven mayor.

Independent Patricia White has been elected mayor of the Shoalhaven, after serving as a councillor for sometime.

Ms White was elected convincingly to the coastal council, which spans from Ulladulla to northern Nowra, with 55.27 per cent of the vote.

“I’ve had quite a bit of time to reflect on what happened this election and it’s clear the people no longer want major political parties in local government,” Ms White told this publication.

Her election as an independent mayor follows two terms of having the Greens’ Amanda Findley in the top job.

Ms White said the inclusion of major parties in her local government area caused more issues than solutions.

“Residents need councillors who are going to listen to them and come up with solutions for them, not solutions that are going to appease the higher ups in their parties,” she said.

The newly elected independent mayor said her promise of wanting to listen to residents wasn’t just a talking point, but something she wanted to endeavour to achieve.
“We will be the first mayor to have a public office where people can come in, meet me and list their issues,” Ms White said.

The office – which is set to open later this month – will be exclusive to the Shoalhaven Council building at the start, but Ms White said more will open around the electorate as time passed.

“We will open one in Ulladulla, Berry, Kangaroo Valley – it will be a bit of a travelling road show, but we want to meet the residents and keep up to date with what they believe needs to be happening around the area,” she said.

Ms White believes opening the offices will allow her to fix issues around the region, like road repairs and the current Shoalhaven financial woes, by listening to people and allowing residents to have their say on the big issues.

“It’s all about listening to the people and the people have spoken,” she said.

Eurobodalla Council:

Mathew Hatcher has been re-elected Eurobodalla mayor.

It wasn’t a close race further south in the Eurobodalla, which stretches south of Narooma to north of Batemans Bay, with sitting independent mayor and “coffee king” Mathew Hatcher easily regaining the top job.

“People want to see our work continue,” he said.

“I want see us continue down this path and I’ll continue to work with all the elected councillors and delivering what we promised in the election.”

Mr Hatcher – who won with 69 per cent of the vote – said a number of factors contributed to his re-election, however rates were arguably “the big one”.

The Eurobodalla was one of the only local government areas in NSW where there were no rate rises in the last local government term,

Signs galore at the Batemans Bay Community Centre voting booth on September 14.

“I think people connected with what we were doing, with no rate rises, our growing towns and our vision for where we want our central areas to go,” Mr Hatcher said.

When Mr Hatcher – who also owns Guerilla Roasters and provides a number of Eurobodalla cafes with coffee beans – was first elected in 2021, he said “finances” were the number one issue.

It’s a sentiment he still believes in years later.

“The world is in a great financial predicament and local councils need to make do with the little money they are allocated,” he said.

“It’s not about fighting for more money, that very often leads nowhere, so we stop and go, okay, what can we do with the money we have?

“How can we use this money to create the best and cleanest public toilets, the best parks, the best buildings and use the funding we have as efficiently as we can?”

Mr Hatcher said he would continue to work to avoid any rate rises.

“That’s the main goal,” he said.

Bega Valley Council:

Russell Fitzpatrick has been re elected mayor.

For current independent mayor, Russell Fitzpatrick, his ultimate re-election almost didn’t seem possible, with incoming results constantly having him behind Labor’s Helen O’Neil.

“From the start, it was a bit shaky, we were the bottom of the ballot, there were new faces running, so it was hard to tell what was going to happen,” he said.

However, after preferences were accounted for, Mr Fitzpatrick was re-elected – albeit, by only 36 votes.

“It was a close one, but I knew we’d get it in the end,” Mr Fitzpatrick said.

The southernmost NSW local government area experienced a number of issues in the last four years, from rate rises to continued issues with development application approval.

Mr Fitzpatrick said he would continue to work to bring development application times down.

“It’s something I’ve been working on even before I was mayor,” he said.

“The approval times are too long and it’s something we’re going to have to really focus on.”

Similar to Mr Hatcher, Mr Fitzpatrick said it was “important” to use council’s funds correctly.

“This term, we’re going to see a lot of projects completed,” he said.

“If last term was getting the groundwork done, then this term is finishing them off.

“I’m thankful the people have given me a second go at mayor and I’ll keep working hard for them.”

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