A community campaign has been launched to make the Legislative Council members more accountable and accessible to the public.
The group, Nelson Voters for Change, has called on all members of the Legislative Council to work full-time and have offices, to make representing the voters who pay their significant salaries their first priority.
Dr Juliet Lavers, a General Practitioner, said that Nelson voters were sick of having a part time representative who was unable to be accessed by the public.
“Our local representative, Mr Jim Wilkinson has frankly treated the pubic with disdain, by failing to have an office the public could visit and maintaining a second job as a lawyer.
“We have a lot of issues here in Nelson, the economy is in trouble and we’re losing jobs.
“We need someone elected to Parliament who is going to put our issues first. We need someone whose office we can visit about issues in the community.”
“We call on whoever is elected to met these pretty simple requirements that the community expects.
“Our organisation is interested in democracy and transparency. If elected officials can’t represent the views of their constituency, we have to ask our selves what exactly they’re there for.
“We will be running a campaign that will run radio ads, letter-boxing and door-knocking in Nelson in the lead-up to this year’s May 4 election.
“Most people I speak to are outraged that Jim Wilkinson, my local Legislative Council member, only works part-time, considering that he gets paid more than $160,000 to do it.
“A recent poll we conducted shows the majority of people in Nelson doesn’t even know who he is.
“Only 44 per cent of voters identified Jim Wilkinson as their Legislative Council member.
“It is unbelievable to me that after 18 years, almost 2 decades, over half of the electorate don’t even know who Jim Wilkinson is, let alone what he has done to represent them.”
“Jim Wilkinson is getting paid a full-time salary to work part-time. After 18 years, he doesn’t even have an office in the electorate,” Dr Lavers says.
ReachTel Opinion Poll Results
ReachTEL conducted a survey of 542 residents across the Tasmanian Legislative Council division of Nelson. The survey was conducted the night of 4th April 2013.
Questions
1. Do you know who your current Legislative Council member for the seat of Nelson is?
2. With an annual salary and allowances of over $160,000, do you think the role of Legislative Council member should be full-time?
