Rodney Stevens
As counting continues in the 2024 Local Government Elections first time candidate Cristie Yager had a clear lead in the initial count winning 13 of the 28 polling booths across the Clarence Valley.
There were 41,897 people enrolled to vote in the Clarence Valley to elect 9 Councillors from 17 candidates for the next four-year Council term, and with 18,790 votes initially counted on polling day, there are 23,107 pre-poll, postal, and phone votes still to be added to the tally.
At the first meeting of the newly elected Council in October, Councillors will vote for a new Clarence Valley Mayor.
The initial vote count as at Tuesday morning saw:
- Cristie Yager secure 3252 first preference votes (fp) & 14.96% of formal votes (fv);
- Greg Clancy with 2223 (fp) votes – 10.23% of (fv);
- Incumbent CVC Mayor, Peter Johnstone with 2216 (fp) votes – 10.19% of (fv);
- Shane Causley with 2071 (fp) votes – 9.53% of (fv);
- Lynne Cairns 1615 (fp) votes – 7.43% of (fv);
- Debrah Novak 1386 (fp) votes – 6.38% of (fv);
- Ray Smith 1354 (fp) votes – 6.23% of (fv);
- Allison Whaites 1253 (fp) votes – 5.76% of (fv);
- Karen Toms 1143 (fp) votes – 5.26% of (fv);
- Melissa Hellwig 917(fp) votes – 4.22% of (fv);
- Andrew Baker 910 (fp) votes – 4.19% of (fv);
- Amanda Brien 865 (fp) votes – 3.98% of (fv);
- Steve Pickering 769 (fp) votes – 3.54% of (fv);
- James Allan 729 (fp) votes – 3.35% of (fv);
- Des Schroder 450 (fp) votes – 2.07% of (fv);
- Justin James 438 (fp) votes – 2.01% of (fv);
- Phillip Provest 146 (fp) votes – 0.67% of (fv).
The 9 elected Clarence Valley Councillors may not be known until after postal votes are returned on September 27 and preferences are distributed on September 30, with final results to be declared on October 3.
Cristie Yager told the CV Independent she made an early declaration in February that she would be a candidate as she wanted to take an open approach and make her intentions publicly known as she worked toward polling day on September 14.
“Once I decided I would run for council I began to research,” she said.
“I put aside my entire life to work full-time to learn what it meant to be a community representative.
“I started by contacting every councillor, asking for advice, I read a lot.
“I declared publicly on Craig Howe’s meet the candidates Facebook group.”
It was then that Cristie said she was targeted and told she would never be elected.
“Being told I cannot do something only inspires me further,” she said.
“I genuinely believe anyone can achieve anything, anyone who has ever done anything began somewhere.”
So, Cristie focused on her campaign, continually learning about council, meeting people, and raising her profile.
“I read every business paper, attended every meeting since February in person, and watched online afterwards where I was confused,” she said.
“I have volunteered, attended events, met with key local unofficial leaders to listen, taken phone calls, replied to emails, and accepted every invitation to community meetings.
“I’ve tried to be as open and responsive as possible.
“I’ve tried to improve myself via Toastmasters to improve my communication skills, attended brilliant workshops such as Women for Election, joined zoom webinars and online lessons.
“I wanted to play pretend councillor and see if the workload, the community commitments, the excessive and complicated reading, the often-unpleasant commentary was something I could handle.
“I intend to continue devoting my full attention to this position as I have the past year…It’s been so rewarding.”
So far, her approach has been successful, and Cristie said she is excited to have achieved what she set out to do.
“I took this approach because I knew how very different in a literal sense I would be as a potential councillor,” she said.
“I don’t speak in a way that’s expected, I don’t act nor look the way a typical politician looks.
“I am myself and I embrace that.
“I knew it would be hard work.
“I knew people would need time to adjust to my words, thoughts, and ideas in relation to my appearance.
“I wanted to remain as independent as possible, use my own thoughts and feelings, remain my own unique self and show everyone and anyone that they can make a difference.”
Cristie said the way she ran her campaign has given her the freedom to be flexible with what she wants to achieve.
“One of the very first things I’d like is for council to formally recognise the cost-of-living crisis and this may even come down to a simple conversation with fellow councillors,” she said.
“We must act accordingly and find ways of easing our communities’ struggles not be an additional burden.
“I would love to engage with high school students, especially young women, I’d love for them to understand the importance of our democratic system and how valuable they are to the process which will affect us all in generations to come.
“I’d love to inspire people in a fresh way to get excited about their local community, get involved, have a say, and rebuild those connections we lost through the last years of stress, worry and separation.
“Community spirit is essential, and we need it now more than ever.
“I’ll be focusing on how we can get people together as one in the air of acceptance and fairness.
“I’ll be pushing for a stronger community involvement in meetings and engagement. I’d like to investigate our early childhood education and aged care services and see where improvements can be made for our most precious members of society.
“I’ll be working with councillors to bridge the very apparent gap between local government and our people.
“It’s our time and I want to make sure the focus remains on our people not on how profitable we are.”
For updated 2024 Clarence Valley Local Government election results visit https://vtr.elections.nsw.gov.au/…/clarence…/councillor
Caption: First time Clarence Valley Council candidate Cristie Yager secured the most first preference votes in the initial count with 16.63% of the 18,790 votes counted. By Tuesday morning her count stood 14.96% of the 21,737 votes counted. Image: file photo