Experience brings success.
That’s the belief of Cabonne councillor Lachlan MacSmith as he heads up a group in the Cabonne election to win a second term.
The Cudal farmer told the Central Western Daily yesterday he was the right man to help lead Cabonne forward.
“We only have a few people on council that have been on there for four years and I’m one of them,” he said.
“I’ve got enough to do in my life without doing this as an add-on addition. I’ve got a passion to do it. I think the last two years Cabonne has moved in the right direction. We’ve done too much in the last two years to walk away and let the council go backwards.
“If we get in, we’ll start working from day one. We won’t waste those couple of years getting to know the ropes.”
At the forefront of issues Mr MacSmith would like to tackle is Orange City Council’s proposed Macquarie River pipeline.
“I’m very concerned about it,” he said. “I think it should be a regional issue, I think there’s too much at stake here for just Orange to spend $50 million.
“I’ve walked the pipeline route and I think there’s far too many ifs and buts about it.
“I think it’s going to be the greatest waste of money the way it’s been set up. There are other alternative options in the short term and we should be looking for something better from a regional approach.
“I’m against it in its present form.”
Other issues Cr MacSmith believes in are economic growth and looking after small country towns.
That’s why he said he’d fight “tooth and nail” to avoid any amalgamation with Orange City Council.
“Cabonne is very viable in its own right and we don’t have to merge with anyone else,” he said.
“We’re a rural lifestyle council and that’s why a lot of people want to get away from big towns.
“I spend thousands of dollars in Orange, my wife and two daughters all work in Orange, I’m not disputing it’s the centre of interest they all say, that’s fine it’s mine too, but I still like the rural lifestyle and I think it can be run that way.
“Do Orange want to worry about the hall at Eugowra, or the pool at Yeoval? They’re not interested. We’re prepared to take that on.
“We’ve got to look after our smaller towns.”
A strong representation for the local community is why Cr MacSmith has urged voters to back his team.
They’re headlined by Sharon Wilcox, Ian Davidson, Lenny Punch, Colin Young and Gerald Ingham.
“We don’t have a lot of big issues, we have a lot of small issues,” Cr MacSmith said.
“I admit at the start we lacked experience but we’ve been on there [council] for four years.
“When we started out we were green. We had eight new councillors on there, we were green and got led off track on a couple of issues.
“We’ve got good financial stability. We’ve got a new GM.
“We won’t start cold, we’re ready to tackle the big issues.”
