Fairfield. Liverpool. Newcastle. Wollongong. Sydney. Melbourne. Brisbane. London. Berlin. Paris. New York.
What do the above cities have in common? They all allow local residents to directly elect their Mayor.
Now consider Parramatta. Our Lord Mayor is elected every two years by a closed group of 15. The public vote in council elections every four years. Following a major restructure in 2017, both Parramatta and Cumberland elect five wards of three councillors each, with the mayoral ballot held shortly after.
In the time I’ve lived here, it’s invariably been a saga of scheming and skulduggery, mostly out of public view. During the last term alone, there were three Lord Mayors – Andrew Wilson, Bob Dwyer and Steven Issa (who farcically served for a matter of weeks). Labor’s Donna Davis currently wears the gown and chains, but her position is up for grabs this year.
Over in Cumberland, Steve Christou was famously elected as a Labor councillor, but subsequently switched parties to shore up the bloc votes necessary to become Mayor. Similar shenanigans have been legion across different Sydney councils, in a situation memorably exposed by the 1996 ABC documentary ‘Rats in the Ranks’.
Now, City of Parramatta is consulting residents on whether the public should finally be able to choose their Lord Mayor. Feedback is being received until May 15 – but to change the system a referendum will be required.
35 local government areas across Sydney operated under the direct election method in 2021. Ryde residents also voted overwhelmingly that year to change the rules. Presumably, they were sick of having nine different Mayors since 2009 and the winner even drawn out of a hat.
My support for a directly elected Lord Mayor is not a reflection on individuals past or present. While I’m a Labor member, mine is an individual perspective about what is best for Parramatta and if I offend an apparatchik somewhere, so be it.
There are also legitimate questions about how a directly elected Mayoralty would affect the size and composition of the council chamber. (A report in 2020 by the Committee for Sydney and Business Western Sydney proposed abolishing all wards and establishing a unique governing model through a standalone City of Parramatta Act.) But I’ll leave that debate to the experts.
The reality is Parramatta is no longer a sideshow. We are a global, multicultural city with a projected population of 450,000 by 2041. As one of the nation’s fastest growing urban areas, home to major projects and billions of dollars of investment, stability of leadership and governance is needed to deliver long-term outcomes.
Civic leadership is more than a game of pass-the-parcel. From New York’s Rudy Giuliani to Chicago’s Richard J Daley, Anne Hidalgo of Paris and Sydney’s own Clover Moore, history has shown that Mayors with popular legitimacy can help shape a city’s identity and purpose. Surely, the role of Lord Mayor of Parramatta needs to be more than just ceremonial or involve chairing meetings.
This is a valuable position that someone should aspire to for a full four-year term, or if they’re good enough, even a decade. And he or she should be a locus of power in their own right – able to stand up and argue the case for Parramatta and step where necessary on party political toes.
In future years, the City of Parramatta may need to make the case for different population targets or a better infrastructure deal from Sydney and Canberra. We will need to attract major events and new businesses, universities and other institutions.
At their best, the Lord Mayor can provide a strategic direction for how our city is to develop. They can energise the public around a uniquely Parramatta vision and agenda. Right now, residents in Epping or West Beecroft feel little in common with Wentworth Point or Toongabbie.
After the 2024 or 2028 council elections, it’s easy to imagine a ragtag assortment of Labor, Liberals, Greens, Our Local Community and independents – even Councillor Kellie Darley’s proposed new party of Community Champions. Just imagine who would emerge Lord Mayor from all that. It might make the Papal enclave at the Vatican look like tiddlywinks.
I think the public can do better – and it’s time to trust the community and turn over Parramatta’s future to them.
Alan is a journalist and communications specialist. He writes a weekly column for Parra News.