A 22-year-old deputy Lord Mayor hopeful says his age is no disadvantage because Hobart City Council “can’t get much more immature than it currently is”.
Jason Dale, who is completing a Bachelor of Laws from Charles Sturt University and a Bachelor of Economics at the University of Tasmania, is making a tilt at the deputy Lord Mayor position, promising to restore professionalism and put ratepayers first.
Asked whether 22 was too young for council, Dale was blunt.
“A good idea has absolutely no age limit,” he told Pulse.
“We already have quite a few people of all sorts of ages currently on council and they already act quite immature.”
“It’s a bit of a … high school schoolyard situation at the moment.”
The title of youngest councillor currently belongs to Ryan Posselt, who is 38.
He said he had been encouraged by supporters to put his hand up for the role after initially planning to run as a councillor.
“Deputy Lord Mayor would be a good opportunity there to sort of help guide the direction of sort of council meetings,” Dale said.
“There’s been far too much of a scene in council of political grandstanding, sort of lack of professionalism, integrity, sarcasm, and Hobart’s rate payers really don’t want to see that sort of thing.”
Dale was born at the Royal Hobart Hospital and grew up in Gagebrook before moving to West Hobart last year.
He said he was running on a platform of pro-business, pro-development and professionalism, and believed the council had been “captured” by individuals with third-party ideological interests.
He is a member of the Liberal Party but is running as an independent candidate, describing himself as “more as a Malcolm Turnbull Lib than a Tony Abbott Lib” and philosophically a classical liberal.
Dale said he was the only candidate he knew of who had been out door-knocking and that so far the response had been mixed.
He said around half of residents were content, but many in Mount Stuart, North Hobart, Newtown and lower Sandy Bay wanted basic services like roads, rubbish collection and recreation prioritised over what he called pet projects such as the Collins Street bike lanes.
His first priority if elected would be a financial audit of the council.
“Is council using rate payers’ money effectively, and is every cent being spent for a positive purpose that the community will benefit from?” he said.
Dale said he had spoken with several existing councillors and the response about him running for council had been positive across the board.
He said he had no aspirations of a broader political career and believed anyone running for local government should be doing so to serve their community.
“I’m not running for the sake of furthering my own career,” he said.
“I’m doing law. That’s where I wanna go.”
“Anyone who’s running for local government should be running for local government for the sake of serving their community, not building their own political career.”
The council elections will be held in October.
