Ben Dudman

Matt Taylor: I’m with Ben Dudman, who is a councillor at Meander Valley Council. Ben, why politics?

Ben Dudman: That’s a really good question. I think, why politics? Because politics is in your life, whether you like it or not. And so it’s a choice of participating or ignoring it.

And I see a lot of benefit in helping to shape my community. So that’s what really got me involved in politics. It’s at the coalface of community. And it’s where you can really make decisions that will impact upon the lives of, you know, the people you live with. Hopefully for the better. And that’s certainly what I intend to do.

Matt Taylor: How did you start?

Ben Dudman: I started as a very nerdy young person who was just always interested in politics. I then started studying law which is the path I saw myself sticking to. I really liked the idea of going to The Hague and looking at international law and going down that career path. And then I joined the Labor Party in 2016 just after the re election of the Turnbull government, and got more involved that way. And it sort of just grew from there.

I started working for a couple of politicians and running for local government. I just moved back to Westbury after studying in Hobart and completing my studies and I decided that there was a few things on the council that I wanted to see changed. And so I put my hat in the ring and I’m very fortunate that the community were happy to back me and support me in, jumping on and participating in the council.

Matt Taylor: Can you talk a bit about some of the changes that you were interested in implementing or what was particularly interesting for you to get involved in?

Ben Dudman: Look, I really wanted to see more transparency and accountability on the council table. I wanted to make sure that people knew what decisions were being made at council and understood why they were being made.

I didn’t see that happening before the last election and I don’t necessarily blame anyone in particular for that. It just wasn’t happening as effectively as it could have been. And so that’s some change that I’ve tried to evoke and ensure is happening in the local community. And I think that is working with my Facebook page and, just making sure I’m available and accessible.

The community know that they can talk to me and they certainly do. And I think that’s one of the core aspects of the change I was hoping to drive and that I am driving is that people know that they can talk to their local councillors and see actions on the issues that they are passionate about.

Matt Taylor: Councillors aren’t provided with a full time wage and whatnot. Can you talk about the other work that you do as well?

Ben Dudman: Yeah, of course. No, I don’t do council for the high paying job, that’s for certain! Look, I currently work for the Federal Member for Lyons, Brian Mitchell, as one of his advisors.

Which is a great way to also connect with the broader community in our regional area. I’ve been working with him since 2021, so for the past three, four years now. And I really enjoy that role. It means that I get to see a lot of the community and a lot of different aspects. And I do enjoy working across all levels of government.

They are all very different and distinct from one another but it’s important that they work together. And seeing that in action is always interesting and enjoyable.

Matt Taylor: Was that part of the appeal in putting yourself forward as a candidate in the recent state government election?

Ben Dudman: Yeah, look, I think it was a natural expectation for many that I would run for state.

I think that expectation was there for everyone except for me, until probably the last minute. But at the time, I think it was around October last year, Rebecca White is the Labor leader. She had a chat to me and asked whether I’d consider running and I said I wasn’t sure – and thought about it for a solid week.

And then I came back to her and said, “Okay, I’m in”. And part of that *(reasoning) was the experience that I had in the community in both my roles as an advisor and also as a councillor. I’m very fortunate in that I got to see the issues that were at play. But unfortunately they weren’t good issues that were happening and that’s what spurred me on.

I grew up in this community. There is more homelessness now than there ever has been and there are worse health outcomes – issues like that. More and more young people are leaving our area to seek opportunity elsewhere, usually on mainland Australia. And that’s what I wanted to turn around and that’s what really drove me to stand for state because I love what I’m doing on the council, but there are limitations to that.

I can’t have a role in health outcomes or really push the issue of homelessness beyond what I’m limited to as a councillor. That is the state government jurisdiction and that’s why I put myself forward for it.

Matt Taylor: You touched on homelessness and the changing demographics of the state. But do you have any specific areas that you are quite passionate about that you can do within council or outside?

Ben Dudman: Oh yeah, absolutely. Look, you know, Council is the coalface of the community, it’s the closest government authority to community, so there are lots of different things that we can do and we are doing in terms of local initiatives, supporting small businesses, we have our Liven Up events for the community.

Different areas of the municipality – Lift Local sent people to wineries and to Ashgrove to experience what we had to offer and provides new experiences. So that community level, making sure that we stay connected and are doing things – is something that I’m really passionate about.

And of course, you know, I sit on a homelessness advisory committee with Launceston Council and the greater region. And part of that role is doing what we can from a local level to improve the lives of people sleeping rough in our municipality and we are working as hard as we can to make sure that those initiatives come through and we are supporting people.

But of course, you know, it comes down to having the budget and the money to build homes at a base level and that’s the difference and the limitation. So there are some things that I can do but there’s always limitations on what can be done.

Matt Taylor: How do you see the area potentially changing in the next five or ten years or longer? And does that contrast to what you have seen change in your time here?

Ben Dudman: Westbury’s changed a lot. When I was growing up here, it was a satellite town of five acre blocks. Not so much anymore. It’s really a place that has opportunity and the opportunity to attract new young people into the area who are looking to maybe work around Launceston, But not necessarily live in Launceston – there’s opportunity there.

So, I think the way things are going with the developments we’re putting through at the moment, we’re definitely going to see a growth in the population. But we have to make sure that the infrastructure keeps up to that and we still stay true to our historic and village appeal as well, which makes Westbury so iconic.

And I think that’s a balance that we can achieve. We just have to be proactive and intelligent about the way we develop our community.

Matt Taylor: Where do you see yourself in 10 years?

Ben Dudman: Yeah, that one is a tough question. I, I don’t really know. I’m one of those people that either swings between; Not having a plan past tomorrow and living in the moment, and having one until the day I die. I don’t know. I think it would be probably wrong of me to have a guess.

Because I’ll just either jinx myself or put myself in a position that I don’t know. It won’t work out but where I’d like to be in 10 years is just happy, still supporting my community in whichever way I can and making a difference. That is my core values, that’s what I want to achieve in life and it doesn’t matter what role that is or where that is, as long as I feel like I’m making a difference and supporting the people I live around and love, then I’m happy with that.

Matt Taylor: I’ve seen recently about there’s a proposed mine up in Reedy Marsh. Do you have a view on that?

Ben Dudman: Look as one of the people that will be making a decision on that application It’s improper of me to make a call on it now. That is open to public consultation until the 18th of June and I’d encourage any member of the community to put forward their views on that either for or against it. And I’ll certainly be taking them on board and assessing the application fairly, in line with community’s views and the Tasmanian Planning Scheme that we work under.

Matt Taylor: Slightly different question. I’ve been wondering why council offices are in Westbury and not Deloraine. Do you know the history or why that happened back in the day?

Ben Dudman: Well, I wasn’t there. We merged with the Deloraine council in 1993. So it used to be the Westbury Council and the Deloraine one and they merged to make Meander Valley.

At that time, the decision was made to move the council as a whole to the Westbury Chambers. I’m not entirely sure what the rationale was. I’m sure it didn’t have anything to do with population or anything like that. And knowing the rivalry between the two towns, I’m sure it was a big decision to make.

But we’ve operated in that building since 1993. And certainly intend to continue doing that.

Matt Taylor: There’s been discussions about amalgamations of councils in the past. Do you have views on that?

Ben Dudman: I definitely have views on that.

The proposal that was put forward by the state government, in my view, was fairly weak and blind to the, realisation of what mergers that they were proposing would mean. There were proposals to take Prospect Vale away from Meander Valley, and Hadspen as well, but expecting us to move as far south as New Norfolk.

So there were going to be massive local government catchments and expecting councillors to service that area on a $17,000 a year allowance is just not realistic and there was no real plan for how that would work. It also didn’t work in terms of financial viability for the councils.

There’s no way a road network can be managed with such a low rate base. And it provided a lot of uncertainty for staff right across the sector, which was just cruel and unfair. And my personal view is it was a political decision with an attempt to slander local government and make it look like a quick win of making less councils, which would inevitably be a ‘good thing’.

But there was no proof or understanding of why that would be a good thing. So I was in tune to what the community was saying, and that was the feedback I was getting from them as well. And that was my view throughout the period of that debate, and of course it went from ‘No forced amalgamations’ to ‘Yes, there will be forced amalgamations’ to back to ‘No’.

And I don’t think it’s something that the government’s willing to tackle again this term of parliament, but we’ll see. One positive out of this whole process, and probably the only positive, is the local community came forward to share their views, and one thing that they shared resoundingly is that they were actually quite happy with the results.

The work that the council was doing – and didn’t want to see a change in our municipal boundaries or the makeup of our council. It was heartening to see that the hard work that we are doing is being noticed and respected and appreciated. The proposals is something that I definitely opposed in that current form.

I was never afraid to talk about amalgamations or changing the way we do local government but it had to be a reasonable and thought out proposal and that just wasn’t it.

Matt Taylor: There’s been some discussion about reintroducing passenger rail to Tassie. Do you have any thoughts or feelings on that?

Ben Dudman: Look, I love a train. I’m a massive train guy. If the economics of the proposal were to work, I’d be more than happy to support it. The biggest issue we’ve had so far with that proposal is that we don’t have the population or the tourism base to generate the funding for large scale transit corridors between.

The major cities. But you know, if it could work, I’d definitely be there backing it.

Matt Taylor: Thank you.

Ben Dudman: No worries.