FORMER ABC personality Carol Duncan wants to run for Newcastle City Council with the Labor Party.
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Labor preselection for the next council election opens on Monday and the Newcastle Herald has confirmed that Ms Duncan, a radio presenter at the national broadcaster until 2014, will nominate to run in Ward 2.
The next council elected is slated for September after the proposed merger between Newcastle and Port Stephens was abandoned.
“I guess over the years I’ve been in a privileged position to be in the middle of numerous discussions and arguments over the future of city over a couple of decades and now I’m unencumbered by the policies of my former employer so I can throw my hat in the ring and try to make a difference,” she said.
“My husband and I have always tried to teach our kids that politics is not a passive thing, you should not just let politics happen to you [and] I would like to think that in my previous job I always tried to encourage people to at least take part.”
Ms Duncan declined to lay out her opinion on the direction of the current council, saying she wanted to speak directly to Labor Party members first.
“My personal opinion matters to some degree but it’s really the opinions of the community and Ward 2 that matters [and] I intend to contact members and speak at branch meetings,” she said.
The Herald understands Ms Duncan laid out her plans to nominate for preselection at an Adamstown branch meeting last week.
While it’s no certainty that she won’t face a preselection challenger, Ms Duncan has been helped by the endorsement of Newcastle Lord Mayor Nuatali Nelmes.
Ms Duncan was a presenter with the ABC in Newcastle for more than a decade before her show was cut in a down-sizing at the end of 2014.
She said she joined the Labor Party after leaving the ABC.
“Even though I’ve been accused of being this and that, I’ve been accused of being every political persuasion over 25 years of radio,” she said.
In an email message to Labor members on Monday afternoon Ms Duncan said she joined Labor “as the party which shares my values of fairness, equality and social justice”.
“Over the last eight years, Ward 2 has been represented by a strong community champion in Tim Crakanthorp, but now that Tim serves as our state member, our party needs a new representative for Ward 2. That's why I’m putting my hand up and asking for your support,” she wrote.
“I live in Hamilton with my partner and our two sons. My partner is a Labor member and my father-in-law, Bob Ireland, is a Life Member and current President of Adamstown Branch.”
She said the if elected she would “seek to build on the success of the recent strong partnerships formed between the university, state government agencies, community and local businesses, while also championing the preservation of Newcastle’s unique heritage, supporting our burgeoning cultural life, and delivering on the needs of my community in Ward 2”.
Ms Duncan joins a crowded field of ex-media types running for public office in the Hunter.
Most recently, former radio host Meryl Swanson won the seat of Paterson for Labor at last year’s federal election.
Before that, former NBN newsreader John Church and ex Prime News journalist Jaimie Abbott stood for the Liberal Party in Shortland and Newcastle respectively.
The former Labor state member for Newcastle, Jodi McKay, was also an NBN newsreader before entering politics.
And John Brown, a former Newcastle Herald subeditor, has stood for the Greens at a number of elections in the seats of Maitland, Port Stephens and Paterson.
