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    Horsham Rural City Council councillor Robyn Gulline.

Analysis key for incoming Horsham mayor Robyn Gulline

By DEAN LAWSON

New Horsham mayor Robyn Gulline believes having an in-depth process of project analysis will be critical in how a new Horsham Rural City Council operates in the next four years.

Cr Gulline, who took the council chair after a statutory meeting last week, said she wanted to ensure the council went beyond a simple ‘for and against’ approach in addressing the many issues likely to emerge.

“I want to move past some of the ways we discuss projects. I want to analyse them deeply – perhaps bring my teacher and risk-management hat to the table to determine strengths and weaknesses of a proposal and how it impacts on people,” she said.



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“It’s about problem-solving through swot analysis and when we have solutions, doing another analysis on them. This type of problem-solving methodology was something I was going to bring to the council regardless of whether I was in the chair.”

Cr Gulline, a Longerenong farmer and teacher and a mother of three adult children, has qualifications including a Master of Business Administration, Bachelor of Education, Diploma of Accounting, Diploma of Teaching – Primary-Preschool, Certificate IV in Training and Assessment and Governance of Registered Organisations.

She has also spent the past five to six years working at high levels of regional advocacy through various development programs and organisations.

She said her experience made her feel comfortable in being the leading community representative for the most populous municipality in the region.

“I already know a lot of the key players at key high levels of governance and have worked closely with them,” she said.

“I have strong personal and professional working relationships with many councillors and agency representatives.”

Diversity

Cr Gulline said she had great confidence in what diversity in council representation would bring to the table.

“We as a collective group have agreed that we want to present a united front to the community,” she said. 

“We have also committed to being respectful when we have differences of opinion. And we have also committed to bringing different perspectives that we hear from the community and to me that’s really important.

“We are all so different with different backgrounds and when I look at the community footprint we seven cover there is not a lot of overlap. This means we have an opportunity to readily engage with the majority of the community so I am quite excited.”

 

Horsham Rural City Council councillors from left, David Bowe, Ian Ross, Les Power, Robyn Gulline, Claudia Haenel, Di Bell and Penny Flynn.

Cr Gulline said development beckoned Horsham and the region overall and it was important to explore ways of overcoming shortfalls and capitalising on opportunities.

“What else can we attract or build here, where can we add value to what we already do? These are the conversations we must continue to have,” she said.

“I object to the pull that drags people away to greater Melbourne, which includes Ballarat, Bendigo and Geelong, and I want to see us develop in a way that those push-pull factors aren’t as strong.”

She said the Horsham municipality was a regional leader and she was committed to enriching the partnerships with neighbouring councils, Wimmera Southern Mallee Regional Partnership, Regional Development Australia Grampians, Grampians Tourism, Wimmera Development Association, GNet and working with the region’s parliamentary representatives ‘for the benefit of our regional population’.

Cr Gulline was also quick to add that taking on the role of mayor was ‘an honour and a privilege’.

“Horsham is a wonderful place to live, work, play, visit and invest. We are a community with diverse interests and needs,” she said.

The seven-person Horsham council includes six representatives entering their first terms as local government representatives.

Police officer Cr Les Power is the only representative from the previous council.

Other councillors are Penny Flynn, Di Bell, Ian Ross, Claudia Haenel and David Bowe.

 

RELATED: Farmer and teacher new Horsham mayor

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The entire November 25, 2020 edition of AgLife is available online. READ IT HERE!