Wednesday evening Yass Rostrum and the Business Chamber, hosted a Meet the Candidates forum where 28 of the 32 candidates attended.

Organisers, who faced format challenges with the number of candidates, opened audience questions before the forum began.

The audience included questions about the Yass Main street refurbishment; clarification on voting and group tickets; by-elections for unfit candidates; political parties local government; commitment to at-risk families and youth; future infrastructure and how the budget work to affirm these projects.

While candidates briefly answered these questions, most spoke about the Valley’s shortcomings and how, as representatives, they would make improvements.

Residents attending the evening remarked that rate increases weren’t discussed, but rates spending was an issue.

“Infrastructure was a mentioned by all,” one ratepayer said. “Which is something we haven’t put a lot of emphasis on in the past, it was good that each candidate recognised that.”

One resident criticised the question procedure, stating that without direct questions, challenge specific issues and responses was impossible.

“If there were too many candidates to allow the forum to be run on democratic principles, a different format should have been considered,” one ratepayer said.        

Despite some criticism, the residents attending the evening agreed that the Yass Valley is fortunate to have so many candidates.

“To have 32 people willing to put their hand up to become a representative for the Yass Valley is remarkable, we are very luck,” MC Linda Methane said.

“Candidates from all villages, of all ages and backgrounds, had the idea of contributing to the community,” Rotary’s Alfred McCarthy said.

“This was the main point of the evening, how many very capable and willing candidates we have.”