General News
7 July, 2026
Cardew to run for Mayor
BASIC maintenance and a strong focus on returning the Tablelands back to a well maintained and picturesque place to live are two of the priorities for Cr Kevin Cardew who has announced he will contest the upcoming TRC Mayoral election.
The former Deputy Mayor and current Division 1 councillor has always been a strong voice in the chamber, pushing commonsense solutions and advocating for more money to be spent on maintaining public areas and roads and upgrading critical infrastructure like sewerage and water.
Cr Cardew will be vying for the position, left vacant by Rod Marti’s recent resignation, against Division 3 Cr Dave Bilney who announced he was standing last week.
Cr Cardew has been outspoken in recent years about a number of critical issues including the need for more efficiencies within the organisation to boost funds for maintenance of roads, drainage and other core services – a stance that has made him vote against the council’s last three budgets.
He also fought against the decision to demolish the Mt Garnet pool in lieu of repairing the structure and, in recent times, stood strongly against the council’s decision to deny some sporting clubs a concession on their rates.
“I am a born and bred Tablelander with a strong focus of returning the Tablelands back to a well maintained and picturesque place to live that we love,” Cr Cardew told The Express last week.
“When I was first elected as a councillor in 2020, I ran with a focus on bringing council back to basics and concentrate on core fundamental local government values.
“As a councillor, I have not managed to achieve this however, as Mayor, I see this goal being much more achievable and more urgent than it was six years ago.
“The recently completed Council Satisfaction Survey clearly shows community satisfaction in council is as low as it has ever been and I believe this is due to failing maintenance on infrastructure, town centres, poor engagement with the community and the general appearance of the region.”
Cr Cardew said he believed that some of the dissatisfaction in council was the recent reaction to the potential sale of assets.
“If I am elected as Mayor, I will seek to revisit this matter to get the proper community input which was not undertaken,” he said.
“I strongly believe that the essential focus of Local Government should be maintaining critical infrastructure such as roads, stormwater drainage, roadside slashing, town centres and other essential utility services.
“Council must get back to having capacity within its own workforce to maintain our own assets and to be able to respond to maintenance needs and community requests quickly when assets fail due to prolonged or unexpected events.”
Cr Cardew said he had extensive local government experience including serving as the Deputy Mayor for four years from 2020-24 and as a councillor for two years in the current term.
“I also worked in local government for over 40 years in building construction, civil construction and building surveying.”
This put him in good stead to be able to review how council was doing its business in a bid to achieve efficiencies and ensure the community’s priorities were recognised and actioned.
“I strongly believe council’s Operational Plan and expenditure urgently needs to be reviewed to allow for more boots on the ground and a stronger focus on maintaining assets,” Cr Cardew said.
“Change is also needed in the way council communicates and deals with community and must be more open, transparent and forthcoming with information.
“It is also vital that we re-establish some Advisory Committees, which are important to provide direct formal advice to council from different sectors of the community such as the agricultural industry.
“It was a system that worked before and it will work again.”
Cr Cardew also vowed to bring back transparency of council’s decision making.
“The recent number of confidential matters has been excessive and unnecessary, and this must be reduced to allow the community to understand and trust council decision-making,” he said.
“As Mayor of the council, a prime aim of mine will be to return the ownership of Tablelands Regional Council to the people of the Tablelands.”
