Puna Gunaratne announces his candidacy for 2024 council elections

I decided to stand again for the council election because I want to see improvements in the council’s long-term financial stability.

I am also looking towards a term with meaningful community engagement.

I am a thaththa (dad), and my two daughters are growing up in Benalla.

I am committed to community service, and I generously give my time to many community groups in Benalla.

I believe that volunteering builds resilient communities.

I am involved in many community groups. I am the president of Benalla Migrants Association, and in this role I have brought important events to the town, including our school holiday program, which provides free school holiday activities with a snack and lunch, and has been enjoyed by many kids in Benalla.

I am also involved with the Benalla Rovers Soccer Club and have led the re-start of the social soccer program on Friday nights.

I have seen council’s community satisfaction results decline over the past few years, and I am concerned that a considerable proportion of the community feel Benalla Rural City Council’s services and advocacy are not meeting the community’s expectations.

I believe we can improve these measures only by meaningful and genuine community engagement.

I believe there are lots of ways local government in Benalla can engage with the community, and we should be working with our creative, resourceful and diverse community to reflect their needs and interests.

I believe community priorities should be at the forefront of council budgets, plans and strategies.

Benalla has a great landscape to build an easily walkable, safe town and a more relaxing environment for our community.

This is important for our community in the current climate crisis. I think the next four years are challenging and are going to be difficult in terms of changing weather patterns and frequent natural disasters.

This means our asset management costs are going to go up every year considerably.

Recent budgets already convey to us the story of expensive repairs from natural disasters.

We need to prepare our community and the council to face the challenging times ahead, or we will face an increasingly sparse financial situation.

I am very focused on improving council’s financials and prioritising the needs of our community in our budgets.

We need to develop sustainable financial goals, which will include reducing the amount residents and ratepayers have to pay in rates and charges.

I am contactable via puna4community@gmail.com