BRIAN Basham is a self-confessed outsider, but this is something he considers a strength rather than a weakness in his bid to be on the next Horsham Rural City Council.
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A self-employed counsellor by trade, Mr Basham says he is running on a platform of "bringing the public service back to the public".
"One of the advantages of voting for an outsider is I have no long-lasting ties to the community, by which I mean I have no hidden agendes," he said. "If you want to know what I am about, read my blog."
Mr Basham has used a blog to criticise several aspects of the processes taken by Horsham Rural City Council in the past year, including around the City to River masterplan.
"Everybody has an agenda that runs for any office, lets be honest," he said. "My goal is to bring back good governance into this council and bring cmmunity back into council that's is my agenda.
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"My concern is... what I can see has been happening across government agencies state and federal, is that the public servants are trying to squeeze out the elected officials."
Mr Basham is a former Victoria Police Senior Constable, who has also worked as an investigator in the Royal Commission in the Building and Construction Industry in the early 2000s.
In Horsham, he has contributed to Triple H Radio, the Wimmera Cancer Centre and the Wimmera Regional Library Corporation.
He said if elected as a councillor, he would also advocate to increase "tourism and the economic environment" in Horsham and surrounds.
"How many empty shops are there on Firebrace Street. Business Horsham can make representations, and we need groups like them to speak to council and talk about what they need the council to do. And if it's feasible and it works within what the council is legally and financially able to do, then we should be engaging those people.
"I don't have a problem if groups like them have ideas, but at the moment, from my outsider's perspective, that these groups are not being engaged by the council.
"I would also like to increase community engagement and participation."
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