Pittwater Online News

 

The first thing that strikes you about Sue Heins is her energy. It’s raw, it’s engaged and it’s real. You get the feeling she won’t stop until the job is done - like it or not. She’s a woman driven by a passion to make her community better, to improve local services and promote local business. It’s hard not to be inspired.

 

A strong advocate for local business and prolific networker through her company, Inspiring Women, Sue’s reach along the northern beaches is vast. She is a former president of the Warringah Chamber of Commerce and Industries; a past director of the Business Education Network; and current board member of the Manly Warringah Women’s Resource Centre. Add to that her experience as a Warringah councillor and deputy mayor, Sue’s extraordinary communication skills and practical hands-on help are invaluable.  

 

Sue believes the Northern Beaches Independent Team is the right platform to find solutions for her community, within her community. She wants common sense and transparency to be reflected in a new council, along with financial sustainability to provide the services and infrastructure needed right now and for future generations. She regards community consultation as vital, and believing that compromise can only be reached when different perspectives are put forward, would like to introduce a regular meeting point where residents can bring their concerns, ask questions and be heard.

 

Sue has lived on the Northern Beaches for more than 20 years, giving enormous energy and time to helping create opportunities as a volunteer or within her own business organisations. Her dedication to the local community has been acknowledged by various awards including a Rotary Community Award for service to the community; a life membership of the Warringah Chamber of Commerce and Industries; and in 2015, in recognition of her outstanding contributions, Sue received the Ministers Award for Women in Local Government.

 

She has played a vital role in raising awareness of the need and importance of strengthening local small business skills within the community, having been successful seeking federal and state funding to support them.  During her time on council she also pushed for the establishment of an economic committee to represent the local business community.

 

However while networking and supporting business is important to her, Sue has also chaired committees for the council’s Active Connected Environment Strategic Reference Group- Infrastructure and Planning, Manly Lagoon Catchment Coordinating Committee and the Warringah Pittwater Bush Fire Management Committee and sat on countless others focussed on improving facilities for the vulnerable, sport and the environment.

       

Rohan Fisher has been saving lives for decades, witnessing first hand how in an instant situations can spiral from calm to critical.

 

As a former president of the South Narrabeen Surf Life Saving Club and the current Duty Operations Advisor for Surf Life Saving Sydney Northern Beaches, Rohan depends on trust and consistency in his team, qualities he also knows will emerge from his Your Northern Beaches Independent Team.

 

Passionate about surf lifesaving since a nipper at five-years-old, Rohan learned early about the benefits of teamwork, discovering later that tough decisions under pressure require leadership and communication. While he relies heavily on gut instinct, believing that 90 per cent of the time it’s right, he also understands that compromise is about finding solutions which benefit everyone, not just an individual.

  

Rohan grew up on the beaches, attending Forestville Public School and St Lukes Grammar, and although he lives in Beacon Hill, and indeed has been heavily involved with the Dee Why Lions Rugby Club since the age of 13, Rohan is confident his decades-long relationship with South Narrabeen Surf Club, more than qualifies him to represent the area.

 

Ready to add orange to the red and yellow he’s worn most of his life, he will naturally have a strong interest in local surf lifesaving and its 12,000 members. His commitment will also extend to giving a stronger voice to the young people he already mentors.

 

Meanwhile, Rohan’s role as sales manager for Synthetic Grass & Rubber Surfaces in Terrey Hills has involved him in many council projects, locally and statewide, triggering a passion for upgrading all council playgrounds to make them inclusive for all users.

 

The YNBIT is the perfect platform for Rohan to provide consistency, inclusiveness and a voice for every resident. He is convinced that independent thinking, away from political or personal agendas, will ensure the needs of locals are put first. 

 

While admitting he’s always lived by the mantra “if you want something done, do it yourself”, Rohan also appreciates that the only way the new Northern Beaches Council can tackle the future with confidence and competence, is to pull together and work as one, welcoming different opinions of course, but working towards goals that benefit the community.