When the local election was pushed back to December and Covid put an end to door knocking, candidate Marg Hogan decided it was time to put her journalistic skills – earned in Bathurst – to work.
Since August, Hogan has been hosting weekly conversations and doing zoom interviews with various guests on her website (margarethogan.com) and the Marg Hogan Team Facebook page, addressing a variety of topics that team members felt might be important to the Bathurst community.
She began with the Villages and has covered issues such as Mental Health, Land Use & Urban Development, Arts & Culture, First People, Tourism, The Future of Motor Racing, Business and Water & Climate Change.
“The community has been wonderful. They’ve joined the conversation over on the website or sent private emails letting us know what’s important to them,” said Hogan. “It was our way of giving the people of Bathurst and the villages a genuine chance to Be Heard (the team’s slogan for the election).
I’m hoping it’s given the community a chance to get to know me a little too.”
I’ve learnt so much from the all the conversations. People have been so generous with their time,” said Hogan.
One of the highlights of the series was an interview with Matt Moran who has great plans for the Rockley Pub and village but Hogan is particularly excited about this week’s special guest, Australian social psychologist and author of The Kindness Revolution, Hugh Mackay.
“Hugh is one of the great minds of Australia. His latest book is all about how we can restore hope, rebuild trust and inspire optimism.”
“I’m very proud of the conversation we’ve had about this week’s subject: Community, Kindness and Hope. We talk about many things, but it’s Hugh’s approach to kindness that really resonated with me.
In his words, humans have a desire to be heard, to be appreciated, to be understood, to be included and to be taken seriously and acting kindly is central to that, especially if you find yourself in a leadership role.
It’s a lesson for us all and it’s an approach I am determined to employ as we strive to take Bathurst into a new era of governance.
