THE Childers community was the first to see all five Bundaberg Regional Council mayoral candidates in action on Wednesday night.

Candidates Troy Madle, Reid Schirmer, Elise Cottam, Peter Wyatt and Jack Dempsey took the floor in front of 150 locals at the Isis Cultural Centre.

The event held by the Childers Chamber of Commerce and also included the Division 2 candidates Julie Green, Bill Trevor, Jim Nilon and Paul McGarragher.

The fifth Division 2 candidate, Stan Edwards, did not attend.

The forum gave candidates five minutes to tell the crowd why they should be elected to the council.

All candidates where then given two minutes to answer the same two questions before another two random questions were drawn from a hat.

No questions were taken from the floor.

Below is a brief synopsis of what each mayoral candidate said on the night.

A story about the Division 2 candidates will be run in Saturday's paper.

Troy Madle

Troy Madle continued his attack on the current council and the "outrageous" amount of money borrowed for the Rubyanna Sewerage treatment plant.

He said 90% of the region's residents earn less than $60,000 a year, yet the council continues to raise rates and borrow money for "ridiculous projects".

He said because of council borrowing the region would be in a debt position of $141 million by 2018 and rates would continue to rise.

Even after $5 million given to the council by "Anna Bligh", the truth was still to come out about Rubyanna.The biggest problem was the culture of council.

"I'm sorry to say but the CEO is out of touch," he said.

He said the regions had been treated badly since amalgamation and promised more respect them.

He plans to re-open the Gin Gin council service centre and make sure the Childers centre would not be downsized

There is pain in the regions. "We need to get core council jobs back to places like Gin Gin and Childers and no contractors."

He also promised to open an RV trail saying he was the first to come up with the idea and it would not be Bundy centric.

Peter Wyatt

There was no talk of giving $50,000 worth of $20 notes to residents for Christmas in Peter Wyatt's speech.

Mr Wyatt's big ticket item was all about renewable energy for the region.

He wants solar, wind and thermal energy to boost the area.

He promised to make sure every council building in the region had solar panels, even the new Rubyanna sewerage treatment plant.

Plans to build a huge solar farm, so no-one in the region had to pay for power, was also top of the list.

"We will have electric cars in the street," Mr Wyatt said.

He said it would make the region competitive and free up money to allow business to employ more people.

Once no-one had to pay for electricity it would put more money in everyone's pockets, he said.

My Wyatt would also lobby local State and Federal Members for money for Bundaberg

"I will suck them dry, so dry they will need a blood transfusion," Mr Wyatt said to the crowd's amusement.

Elise Cottam

Elise Cottam was right behind tourism and agriculture in the Bundaberg region and making the council work smarter not harder.

The Childers mum said she wanted to be mayor to give people a voice and help out the residents who are struggling in the area.

"I just want to look after the residents," she said.

"I have been there; I ha

ven't been able to pay rates.

"I love Childers but I have to look after the rest of the region as well."

Mrs Cottam didn't rubbish any of the current councillors saying it took more than one person to make a decision and it wasn't fair.

"I don't know the financial position of the council, I won't know until I'm elected.

"I believe in measure twice cut once; it's a way to save money and cost blowouts."

She said council could do things smarter and cheaper.

"Take logo development, instead of paying $100,000, get the schools to do it."

Reid Schirmer

Reid Schirmer based his campaign on tourism saying it was the way of the future for the Bundaberg region.

Mr Schirmer grew up on cane farm at Moore Park before moving to Brisbane to study political science.

Most of his working life he has been self-employed as a car detailer before moving back to Bundaberg in 2013. Then he took a job as a bus driver where he ferried tourists from Bargara to Seventeen Seventy to go to Lady Musgrave Island.

That experience showed him that Bundaberg could be a tourism hotspot and as mayor he would work to make that happen.

"I got an insight into tourism and how it worked," Mr Schirmer said.

"It got me excited about the potential of the region, not just local tourism, but international tourism.

"It's my passion and I put my hand up to become mayor to see tourism going ahead and being supported big time by the Bundaberg Regional Council."

Jack Dempsey

Jack Dempsey's goal is to have the best operating council in the nation, a council other councils would aspire to.

"When they look to a place to learn from they come to Bundaberg," Mr Dempsey said.

He also wanted a council they would unite the Bundaberg region.

He said amalgamation was a takeover of regional areas. "People feel unloved in the regions and they see council services going elsewhere."

He would re-establish a service centre in Gin Gin and protect Childers.

Mr Dempsey said he would get council back to basics; roads, rates and rubbish and set up an open database to allow residents to see when projects would be started and completed.

Another plan was to open an export office in the region to help local business and employment.

Mr Dempsey started his speech by thanking Tony Ricciardi for all the great work he had done in Division 2.