Women in Leadership

By SONYA PHILLIPS

From the perspective of the Local Government; leadership by women in The Hills Shire has been in short supply over more than 100 years.

There have been only three women Mayors of The Hills Shire since it’s a proclamation in 1906. The first female Mayor was Peggy Womersley who led the Council out of a grave financial situation.

I was the first Independent Emeritus Mayor. I retired in 2008 after almost 15 years and during my time I took the local government area to a new height. It was a difficult time with the collapse of the overseas financial markets but the council remained debt-free and during a time of enormous growth it was ‘managed.’

Dr Michelle Byrne followed as the first popularly elected Liberal Mayor and she was outstanding in her role and much respected until she was unceremoniously dumped by the Liberal Party.

The 2021 Local Government Elections will be held on December 4th and it is now time to vote for a woman again. There are two female candidates who have submitted their name for the position of Mayor in 2021.

Dr Vida Shahamat a Greens Candidate is not known to me; however, her policies are directed at Federal issues and whilst laudable I feel she will be only an influencer but I wish her every success in her endeavours.

The other candidate is Alexia Ereboni Yazdani, an Independent who is passionate about justice. She is not aligning herself to any political party. She is an empowered woman and candidate. She is more than familiar with The Hills at a local level; about how local government affects your day to day life. Alexia is a local businesswoman and lawyer with a family and lives locally.

She has thought through the local issues and is prepared to fight for what ‘local’ means.

From my understanding, she is about bringing people together and not dividing them.

All I ask is that you consider Women in Leadership in The Hills when you cast your vote on 4th December