KAREN FOSTER has been itching to run for a position on Moyne Shire Council for nearly a decade.
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But she's hesitated until this year when she'll throw her hat in the ring alongside at least two further women eyeing a chance to boost the council's gender diversity at October's general election.
Ms Foster, Moyne Health Services chair since 2017 and chair of the Leadership Great South Coast for almost a decade, said she now wanted to apply her strategic leadership experience to local government.
The Port Fairy resident and communications business owner says her motivation above all is that she simply "adores" her community.
"I have been thinking about this for about eight years. I'm at a point now where I have young adult children and I feel I have amassed enough life experience to be able to add positive value," Ms Foster said.
She said she was "very much a big picture thinker".
"It would be exciting to as a community develop a vision for how Moyne Shire will look 10 or 20 years down the track," Ms Foster said.
She said she would join two further Women of Moyne members so far committed to run for council.
"Women bring a different style of leadership, not to say that men are bad leaders because they aren't and I love men, but women and men have great complimentary attributes," Ms Foster said.
The Municipal Association of Victoria has shown that just 38 per cent of the state's councillors are women.
"Certainly there is an imbalance," Ms Foster said.
Ms Foster is surveying community members to learn what issues matter most, and said she was passionate about small businesses emerging supported from the COVID-19 pandemic.
The election is slated for October 24.
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Jackson Graham
Jackson is a reporter for The Standard.
Jackson is a reporter for The Standard.
