James Martin has embarked on his second week running the seat of Stretton after succeeding the late Duncan Pegg in a by-election at the end of July.
Mr Martin won a majority vote on July 24 to continue the Labor legacy of his long-time colleague and friend who lost his battle to cancer in June.
Being accused of using Mr Pegg’s legacy to campaign, at the request of Mr Pegg’s family Mr Martin quickly withdrew any promotional material which connected him with his predecessor.
The ex-policeman hopes to continue the respect his friend had across the political divide.
“Duncan Pegg was very well respected across all sides of politics,” Mr Martin said.
“For him it was about service, and I think the key thing about Duncan was that he was always available to people.
“He always used to say it was about you, not me, and all about putting the community first.”
Mr Martin said he didn’t expect to be in the position so soon.
“Duncan’s health deteriorated quite quickly towards the end, so we thought he’d be around a lot longer,” he said.
He worked alongside Ms Pegg from the moment he first took office in 2015 but knew him for 20 years before that.
“I really learnt from him, the key thing he taught me was what you could learn from being in a team,” he said.
“That was Duncan’s strength, putting people together and getting them to work towards a cause.”
Mr Martin said his first priority on the job is to deliver road upgrades for for Illaweena St and Beaudesert Road.
“The first one will be the $30 million upgrade to Beaudesert Rd and Illawena Street that’s in the planning stage at the moment and construction is due to start in early 2022,” he said.
