CELEBRITY cook Stefano de Pieri has entered the race for this year’s Mildura Rural City Council elections.
Mr de Pieri announced this week he would nominate for the ballot, scheduled for October.
“It is time for me to make a positive contribution to the town that has given me so much — a family, a long-term business and countless friendships,” Mr de Pieri said.
The outspoken foodie, who has been critical of the way local government has been managed in Mildura in recent years, said there were people in the community who would question his motivation for wanting a council seat.
“Some people whisper that my advocacy of Mildura is driven by self-interest,” Mr de Pieri said.
“Well, if you do not look after your business, which employs people and pays its bills, you are a mug.
“They also ask what would a cook know about government. I say no more and no less than any other candidate, except that I have been in local government and I worked at a fairly high level in the State Government for several years.
“But nothing replaces passion and vision for the place I have chosen to live in and to raise a family.”
Mr de Pieri moved to Mildura from Melbourne almost three decades ago and has run a string of successful restaurants, but he shot to prominence in the late 1990s through his ABC cooking show A Gondola on the Murray.
He has used his media profile over the years to help promote Mildura and its many attractions and hopes to bring that same passion to his role as a councillor if elected.
“Over the past 30 years I have experienced Mildura, like many newcomers, as a place of possibilities,” Mr de Pieri said this week.
“I got hooked on Mildura and her environs from the day … when we drove into Red Cliffs on an early November day with the jacarandas in full bloom.
“Since then it has been an exciting romp, what with many initiatives and collaborations.
“It has been 30 years of passionate dedication to a community which occupies an original and unusual space in Australia.
“From deep in time to the present, this is a cultural space as well as a thriving economy which deserves better recognition at all levels of government.
“We are unique and we are not the Loddon region and we are not Bendigo.
“I feel the necessity to remind myself of this fact in order to keep the focus on what is precious about us — not to be submerged by a bureaucratic tsunami emanating from people to whom we mean nothing.
“This goes to the core of services and funding matters. While Mildura is a thriving economy, it is also a place of many people with different needs that need to be met with a proper distribution of resources.
“Why do we have to labour so hard to get a few millions to complete our sporting precinct?
“I am in business, though I never call myself a businessman. I think that title is for those who are really good at what they do and know when to take a risk.
“I guess business is the motor of things, but humanity and our environment are equally important.
“I am concerned about the future of food and water, about our fish and our trees, about a city that should be attractive and clean.”
