by Cam Lucadou-Wells
Labor councillors have voted down a proposed report on the public electing Greater Dandenong’s mayor and deputy mayor.
Greens councillor Rhonda Garad, who raised the motion at a 24 March council meeting, said reform would break an ALP stranglehold on the mayoralty for the past decade.
“It makes sense that (ALP councillors) won’t back this motion because if the status quo is working for you, why would you want to change it?
“We have an extreme reluctance from councillors to even explore the model, to even open the conversation.”
Garad proposed a report on exploring how to transition to either direct elections by the community, or a hybrid model combining a community vote and a councillor vote.
The transition would require an “overwhelming” majority in a public plebiscite, followed by advocating to the State Government to change the Local Government Act.
Currently, the mayor and deputy mayor roles are elected by councillors each year – resulting in exclusively Labor-aligned mayors since 2008.
Garad cited the “successful” adoption of community-elected mayors in some NSW councils.
“It’s not breaking the bank, it’s not leading to disinformation and the world hasn’t ended.
“We won’t get the repeated pattern of having the same mayors and deputy mayors elected time and time again.”
In opposition, ALP councillors argued on multiple fronts.
Labor deputy mayor Sophie Tan said there was a risk of populism, higher campaign costs, political divisions, voter fatigue and cyber interference.
ALP councillor Sean O’Reilly said the move was currently not allowed under the Local Government Act.
Potentially, a popular-elected mayor may not have the support of the councillors – a situation that resulted in “chaos” such as at the current Whittlesea council, he said.
ALP councillor Phillip Danh said Garad’s motion was “incredibly patronising” to voters, and based on a “personal grudge”.
His Labor affiliation was “on every single leaflet I’ve put out to letterboxes”, he said.
“My residents know I’m a member of the Labor party, and guess what, they voted for me to represent them.
“Unfortunately the message of this notice-of-motion implies my residents don’t know what they’re doing, that they don’t know what they’re voting for and that somehow we know better than them.”
ALP councillor Loi Truong said it would be “boring” for voters to have mayoral public elections every one or two years – on top of state, federal and council elections.
Independent Bob Milkovic agreed that annual elections may be impractical but supported a report into the issue.
“We shouldn’t hide away and stop a healthy democratic debate.”
He said mayors should not be decided by political parties, citing former ALP councillor Angela Long declaring Labor powerbrokers stopped her from running as deputy mayor in 2023.
“That is not only undemocratic. That is borderline criminal.”
Milkovic also cited former ALP councillor Maria Sampey being expelled from the party for voting for a non-Labor mayor John Kelly in 2007.
Kelly was Greater Dandenong’s last non-ALP mayor.
Also in support, Greens councillor Isabella Do said it would help prevent mayors being appointed by a “small group”.
She questioned the notion that “we elect the best member for the role and that person just so happens to be a Labor member”.
“It’s pretty much an open secret that if you’re not a Labor member you will not be a mayor or deputy mayor in the City of Greater Dandenong.
“It’s almost sort of a joke.”
The issue was one of several meeting flashpoints between ALP councillors and Garad, who is standing against Labor MP Julian Hill in Bruce at this year’s federal election.
ALP councillors voted against Garad’s motion on reforming briefing agendas, while Greens councillors voted against an O’Reilly-initiated report on Springvale Reserve clubrooms.
