Charles Wooley says he wants to bring one thing back to the Hobart City Council – reason.
Wooley’s long career reporting on the environment has earned himself a reputation as an environmentalist, but his pitch to Hobart voters is decidedly pragmatic.
The former 60 Minutes journalist, who announced last week he would run as an independent for both lord mayor and councillor in October, said the council had spent too long fighting over ideology instead of getting on with the basics.
In a sit-down interview with Pulse, Wooley said he believes Tasmania is badly over-governed at a local government level – with 29 councils for around 560,000 people.
“There are too many councils and we’re spreading the talent too thin,” he said.
“There aren’t 29 good mayors in this state.”
Asked directly whether he would merge Hobart and Glenorchy, Wooley said “of course”, saying no government had yet been brave enough to take amalgamation on.
High on his list is rates, which he said were far too high in the Hobart City Council area.
He said he could also not understand why the council charged for parking on Sundays, with his recent social media video calling out the issue in Salamanca generating over 3,000 likes and more than 100,000 views.
Wooley claimed the cost of parking in Salamanca was more than that of a cup of coffee, suggesting the cost to visit the city was driving away the customers of local businesses.
He said the council’s consistent approach to push cars out of the city in favour of greener alternatives was counterintuitive.
Speaking on the contentious implementation of bike lanes around the Hobart CBD, Wooley said the argument had lost touch with what people could actually see on the ground in what he described as the “hilliest city in Australia”.
“Anyone driving around, you’re the jury to a reasonable person, are you seeing many people on bicycles on our hilly streets?” he said.
He said he had no problem with anyone who wanted to ride, describing himself as a “libertarian”.
But he warned that tying bike lanes to climate action risked turning people against both.
“Bicycles will not save the planet,” he said.
On the Macquarie Point stadium, Wooley said he would have preferred the stadium to be located elsewhere, but the decision had now passed through parliament and the city had to make it work.
He said the council needed to keep a close eye on the state government.
“When we’re dealing with a government that somehow bought $1 billion worth of ferries and then forgot to build a port for them, you think, well, what else might they forget?” he said.
Wooley said the worst outcome would be a multi-billion-dollar “hole in the middle of the city” that could not be used, saying the stadium needed to be built with both support and close scrutiny from the council.
As he cast his view toward Kunanyi/Mt Wellington, Wooley said the government’s recently released mountain action plan reaffirmed his view that Wellington Park’s management should be shifted to a new body.
“If I was the premier, I would be hoping that you could get the federal government to take it on. I’m a great believer in federal governments paying for stuff,” he said.
“The mountain is such an iconic, important piece of Australian natural history. It should be given more accord than just run by me, if I’m mayor, and by the premier. I think we need some experts.”
He said he was yet to see a formal plan or funding detail for a cable car on the mountain, but was open to new ideas – including a cable car from Glenorchy as to not obstruct the view of the Organ Pipes.
However he was quick to stamp out the idea of charging a toll for vehicles to drive up the mountain, a concept currently being floated following the release of the mountain action plan.
“I think once we have one toll road in Tasmania, there’d be another and another,” he said.
Speaking to Pulse on Criterion Street as he patted his ‘deputy’, Dusty the dog, 77-year-old Wooley said he would only serve a single term if elected to lead the city.
“No one should be a mayor for longer than a term. It’s madness,” he said.
“I think councillors can stay as long as they want, but renewal [and] refreshment is what you want.”
He suggested a mayor who spent a first term worrying about winning a second was not getting anything done.
Asked for his vision, Wooley said he wanted council meetings that reached sensible decisions guided by the public and by experts.
“And to get home by 6 o’clock for the news without being bashed up,” he said.
There is no incumbent in the race, with Anna Reynolds not seeking re-election after eight years in the top job.
Sitting councillors Marti Zucco, Bill Harvey, John Kelly, Ryan Posselt, Mike Dutta and Louise Bloomfield have also confirmed they will run for lord mayor.
Tiffany Ashdown has also announced her candidacy, alongside former Hobart City Mission chief executive Harvey Lennon.
