The Greens have been quick off the mark and now a new ticket, the McRae-Bloomfield team, has been announced.

And the positive thing is that several of the potential councillors are female.

Considering Orange City Council hasn’t seen any women on council for five years the nominations are well overdue.

In fact, there have only been three women on council since the 2004 election.

According to the latest census figures with specific information about Orange [2011] women outnumber men in Orange by 51.4 per cent to 48.6 per cent.

Yet in the last city council election in 2012 all the successful candidates were men.

In all just nine women have been councillors in Orange’s long history.

Fiona Rossiter, Pam Ryan (McGuiness), Brenda Davies, Sharon Pratt, Margaret Stevenson, Joyce Hawkes, Nancy Weathersten, Marlene Farrell and Leone Healy are the select few.

Former councillors Healy and Stevenson were the first women elected to the council in September 1971.

Cr Stevenson served on council until December, 2006.

In August 2005 she was honoured for being the longest-serving woman on an Australian council.

And now it is time for Orange’s council make-up to truly reflect the population.

So far, Greens candidate Janelle Baylis and McRae-Bloomfield candidates Joanne McRae and Alison Bennett, have announced their plans to run in the next election to be held on September 9.

It is hoped that more women will come forward and present strong cases for their election to voters.

Thankfully council elections are not subject to quotas or specified limits based on sex, age or ethnicity which would artificially decide candidates.

Instead, it is up to candidates of all backgrounds to put their best case forward and show voters why they would make great councillors in the next term of local government.

And it is not just women.

Council also needs a mix of young and older candidates and people from different backgrounds to present a diverse range of views and make decisions.