In a historic first, Sophie Tan has been elected as Greater Dandenong’s mayor for 2025-26.
Cr Tan, who was elected unopposed on 13 November, is believed to be the first female Cambodian-Australian mayor in the country.
And with newly-elected deputy mayor Phillip Danh, she was said to form the first all-Asian Australian mayoral leadership team.
Cr Danh was also elected unopposed by councillors.
After making a late video pitch as deputy mayor, Cr Lana Formoso was not nominated on the night.
Greens councillor Isabella Do, who later told Star News she was set to nominate Cr Formoso, was absent from the meeting due to illness
Cr Tan said her life journey was similar to many in Greater Dandenong.
She told of her family’s escape from Khmer Rouge forces in Cambodia when she was 11 years old in 1995.
Khmer Rouge led by dictator Pol Pot had killed about 2 million people, including all of Cr Tan’s mother’s nine siblings.
Cr Tan and her sister were almost kidnapped several times, before her mother decided to flee as a family for their safety.
Sponsored by her uncles and aunts, they settled in Springvale. Cr Tan graduated with commerce and business degrees, joining the finance sector and the Labor Party.
She said she was honoured to be mayor, with the support of Greater Dandenong’s famously diverse community.
“It should be no matter where you come from. This country Australia, our home, offers us an opportunity to make a difference.
“Our community has its challenges but our diversity and our determination is our strength.”
As mayor, her priorities included the council’s major projects such as delivering Dandenong Wellbeing Centre by 2027 and the Dandenong New Art gallery – without nominating a timeline for the long-delayed, fraught project.
Also to come was the final stage of the Perry Road upgrade, safety improvements at McCrae Street and purple-lidded glass recycling household bins.
Cr Tan had also pledged to build a strong local economy, reduce unemployment, support local business and for a safer, cleaner city working with residents and police.
In the leadup to the 2026 state election, she would advocate for housing, transport, business, employment, major projects and community safety.
She thanked her relatives who sponsored her family’s settling in Australia and “shaped my life”, as well as her mother for raising her to be “the woman I am today”.
Cambodian Labor political leaders Hong Lim, Youhorn Chea and Meng Heang Tak and Labor MPs Tim Richardson, Julian Hill and Lee Tarlamis were also thanked for their support, friendship and advice.
Meanwhile, Cr Danh is a law graduate and former ALP electorate officer who was first elected in a 2024 by-election.
He said he was proud to serve on a council that reflects the community’s “incredible diversity, cultures and experiences”.
Cr Danh highlighted all who work with the City of Greater Dandenong logos on their uniforms, including cleaners, care workers and customer-service officers.
Having lived in Greater Dandenong all his life, he said he wanted to make lives of everyday people better.
“They just want the council to get the basics right so they have one less thing to worry about.”
This included fixing potholes, maintaining roads, parks, sports facilities and libraries, and collecting rubbish on time.
The successful candidates will be bestowed a hefty pay rise during their 12-month terms – $142,661 for the mayor and $71,329 for deputy mayor.
This is well above the councillor wage of $41,992 per year.
Cr Tan and Cr Danh were lavished with congratulatory speeches from Labor colleague councillors.
As expected, independent councillors Rhonda Garad and Bob Milkovic didn’t attend the election with both claiming the mayoralty was “pre-determined” by Labor figures.
“I’ll show up to the Mayoral election when Dandenong’s leadership is decided by councillors, not by Labor powerbrokers pulling strings from outside,” Cr Garad said.
Cr Do, who was absent due to illness, said she was set to nominate Cr Formoso partly to force a live election contest for deputy mayor.
She said the fact that none of Cr Formoso’s Labor colleagues nominated her showed “how the system works” in a “predetermined” way.
