FORMER Balranald Shire councillor German Ugarte says he has decided to run in September’s local government election after unexpectedly hearing news of former general manager Craig Bennett resigning.
“I actually thought I was never going to come back,” Mr Ugarte said.
“Losing the general manager was the tipping point for me.”
Mr Ugarte said he was left concerned about the state of the council after losing its fourth general manager since 2020.
“I thought everything was going OK, and then all of a sudden I didn’t know if it was,” he said.
“I’ve got many questions, and the community has got many questions.
“So, I thought, ‘OK, let’s do it again’.”
Mr Ugarte was a councillor for almost four years, until the entire council was sacked in 2019 following an inquiry that found council had “failed to act as a reasonable employer”.
Since then, the council has been in administration.
“What happened before wasn’t a nice ride,” Mr Ugarte said.
He said he wanted to see more transparency from the council in future.
“We don’t want to go back to what the council was like in the past, where everything was done in secrecy.
“I’m all about transparency, so right now, council needs to tell us exactly what happened. I think it’s pretty simple.”
Mr Ugarte is the owner and operator of Balranald-based Outback Geo Adventures, and has been providing tours to Mungo National Park, Willandra Lakes and Yanga National Park since 2012.
“I’m a big advocate for tourism in the municipality,” he said.
“Tourism is linked with community and that’s why I’m passionate about it.
“I love seeing how communities develop, the histories behind them, and the little things that can make a community unique.
“Balranald is a massive area about 24,000 square kilometres. It’s like the size of Belgium.
“We’ve got other towns like Euston, Kyalite, Hatfield, Penarie, Clare and Oxley where they have their own things going on.”
“When we talk about Balranald, we often tend to forget about them, so we need to include these towns more.”
Although Mr Ugarte was born in Australia to Chilean parents, his family moved back to Chile to raise him there.
He returned to Australia at 26 years old to work in tourism.
“Australia is my home and I definitely feel at home in Balranald,” he said.
“If I get in (elected to council), I want to do things right. I think I learned how difficult it was being in council from last time.
“Hopefully this time councillors will be able to have discussions with each other in good faith, and for the good of the community. We don’t want another council to be sacked.”
