MOONEE Beach marriage celebrant and humanitarian Donna Pike has thrown her hat in the ring for the role of Coffs Harbour Mayor at next week’s Local Government Election.

Donna hopes to be a voice for the community on Council and is passionate about helping the homeless in Coffs Harbour, promoting health and natural medicine, increasing social infrastructure for youths, promoting the region’s Aboriginal culture, fostering a work/family balance for local women, promoting the right to personal freedom of choice, and supporting local not-for-profit community groups.

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“I have a huge passion for our community,” Donna said.

“I’m very fierce and very strong when it comes to humanitarianism.

“It didn’t take me to become Mayor to want to be in a position to help, I’ve been doing it for years.”

Donna is particularly passionate about helping local homeless people and has actively been making their lives better over many years by creating homeless backpacks containing clothes, shoes and personal items and personally listening to their stories.

“I have addressed Council so many times on homelessness, we have a lot of people in the area that are struggling and when Covid happened it accelerated the issue,” Donna stressed.

“There’s all these people that are really really struggling.”

Donna is also passionate about health and natural medicine, and has gained attention within the community for her stance on the Covid-19 vaccination.

“I’ve got family that’s vaccinated, I’ve got family that’s not vaccinated, so I’m not objecting to either, I think we’re all human beings and we have a choice of our own,” Donna stated.

Donna has a personal exemption from having the Covid-19 vaccine, due to what she says are her personal vulnerabilities to the vaccine and believes everyone should have the freedom to choose whether or not they get the vaccination.

“We’re individual people and we all have different bodies, we all have different personal choices because of our bodies,” Donna said.

“Because we don’t know what’s going to affect you, is going to affect me differently, is going to affect someone else differently.

“There’s lots of variables to this.”

Some of these variables Donna listed as the need for informed consent, full disclosure on how the vaccine will affect your body, and a person’s right to freedom of choice.

“If someone chooses to do something at the end of the day, then that is their personal choice,” Donna said.

“If you’re told you have to have the vaccine, it’s like saying you have to vote for this person.”

Donna also said people needed to be fully informed about the Covid-19 vaccine.

“If you’re going to give people in the community something, they need to be fully aware and fully informed,” she said.

“I think we all need to know what’s going in our bodies, and there’s full disclosure of what products are in it.”

In regards to the construction of the Cultural and Civic Space project, now known as Yarilla Place, Donna believes the $81 million funding for the development could have been better spent.

“I think the money could have been better spent on so many needed areas,” Donna said.

“I think we really needed a cultural and civic space, I think we really needed an entertainment area, but the way it got to be a glorified council chambers was just a waste of money.”

Donna believes the money could have been better spent transforming the former Coffs Harbour Deep Sea Fishing Club into an Aboriginal cultural centre for the local community to use, complete with other community facilities such as a wedding centre, cafe and restaurant.

“We’re looking for sustainable, environmental ideas to promote our area; there’s so many ideas I have,” Donna said.
“I’m just trying to benefit the community in any way I can.”

Donna is keen to meet with local community members and ask them what they need to improve their local areas and their lifestyles.

“I’d like to go out to the community and say ‘we’ve got so much money, we want to make sure it’s targeted to where you want to be’,” Donna said.

“We don’t do that, we’re not listening.”

Donna was also adamant that the roles of a Mayor and Councillor were to serve the community.

“When you take this position, you’re a public servant, a servant to the public, there’s no personal agenda there,” she stressed.

“You’re there to do a job for the people.

“We need to go back to basics; we just need to get back to caring about each other.”

Donna has worked in many occupations during her lifetime including pharmacy, real estate, running a modelling agency, as a marriage celebrant, and has been a Justice of the Peace for more than 10 years.

She has lived in Moonee Beach for 27 years and shares four children and eight grandchildren with her husband, local musician Tim Pike.

During this time she has been awarded the Coffs Harbour Environment Award from Council in 1989 for her initiatives to promote recycling in the area, created the Coffs Harbour Community Support, Low-Income & Recycling Initiative, and helped run the Orphans Xmas Events at North Coast Regional Botanic Garden.

Donna Pike is running for Mayor as an Independent, with no group ticket, at the upcoming local government election.

By Emma DARBIN