Lord mayoral candidates unveil final election policies as race for the city’s top job nears an end
Lord mayoral hopeful Arron Wood aims to create a “Walk of Champions” to celebrate Aussie sporting heroes if elected, while incumbent Nick Reece and the Liberals have revealed their final pitches to voters.
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A “Walk of Champions” – inspired by Hollywood’s Walk of Fame – would be created in the Flinders Street Station precinct to celebrate Australia’s sporting heroes, if lord mayoral hopeful Arron Wood is elected.
The walk, which could stretch to the MCG, would honour Australia’s greatest sporting legends such as late cricketing greats Sir Donald Bradman and Shane Warne and tennis trailblazer Evonne Goolagong-Cawley.
Mr Wood and his running mate Erin Deering, who are among the frontrunners in the lord mayoral race, said dozens of legends from the Sport Australia Hall of Fame would be immortalised along the walk, offering sports fans and tourists a unique attraction in the heart of Melbourne’s CBD.
“Melbourne is the undisputed sporting capital of the world and we want to celebrate
that on our streets,” Mr Wood said.
“The walk will create a legacy for our sporting legends, but we’re also focused on rejuvenating the entire Flinders St area.”
The Herald Sun understands that one potential route for the walk could stretch from the station to the MCG, pending consultation with relevant stakeholders.
Under the policy, Mr Wood has also called on the state government to restore the famed Flinders Street Station ballroom into a “year-round events space” for Melbourne creatives.
The Herald Sun was recently granted exclusive access inside the Flinders Street Station building, which remains largely off-limits to the public.
In 2015, former premier Daniel Andrews announced that the state government would spend $100m refurbishing the station, with the works completed by about 2020.
Since then, the third level of the building – including the ballroom – has hosted Rone and Rising exhibitions, but they were forced to run under strict restrictions with only a limited number of attendees due to fire safety reasons.
The Herald Sun understands that significant further funding would be required to upgrade the unused spaces to not only bring them up to modern standards, but to meet current safety and accessibility standards.
Mr Wood said he would work with the state government, VicTrack and Metro Trains to
determine what would be required to open up the space to Melbourne creatives to help support the sector.
“Flinders Street Station is one of Australia’s most important landmarks and we want more Melburnians and visitors to truly discover how special it is,” he said.
He said he recognised the investment to restore the building’s many rooms would be significant, but noted it would be an “investment opportunity for generations to come”.
Mr Wood said his team would also look to establish a Melbourne Holiday Fair at Flinders Street Station, modelled on New York’s event at Grand Central Station, which would be a month-long celebration of small businesses.
Several lord mayoral candidates and their teams are this week announcing a flurry of policies in a bid to win over any undecided voters in the municipality before voting closes on Friday.
As of Wednesday, 39 per cent (54,592) of ballots have been returned for the City of Melbourne, according to the Victorian Electoral Commission.
This trails the return rate for the whole state, which sits at 51 per cent (2,293,419).
Reece’s plan to light up Melbourne
Several of Melbourne’s historic bridges, significant trees and popular running trails would be illuminated all year round if Lord Mayor Nick Reece was returned to the city’s top job.
With only two days to go until voting closes, Mr Reece has pledged to extend the first policy of his campaign, which marked the start of the four-month-long race for lord mayor.
In July, Mr Reece unveiled his plan to fit 20 of Melbourne’s laneways with new decorative “catenary” lighting – similar to the lights above Bourke Street Mall – and “wall-washer” lighting over four years at a cost of $8m.
“Lighting up Melbourne will make this great city of ours even better,” he said at the time.
Mr Reece added that beyond transforming the atmosphere of these laneways, he hoped the extra lighting would help residents and visitors feel safer in the city.
“The feedback we’ve received during this campaign about our Light Up Melbourne plan has been emphatically positive, so we want to take it even further, lighting up historic bridges and major trees,” he said on Wednesday.
If elected, Mr Reece said he would now spend another $3m to install decorative “spot” lighting on Princes Bridge, Sandridge Bridge, Morell Bridge, King Street Bridge and Queens Bridge, which would be programmable for special events and significant cultural days.
“Melbourne is a great river city and I want to celebrate our historic bridges by properly lighting them at night so we can create a new attraction for people,” he said.
“River cities like London and Paris make the most of their beautiful bridges and we could do more of this in Melbourne.”
He added: “This will make this great city of ours even better. It’s all part of our positive plan to make Melbourne even more vibrant, as well as safer for everyone.”
The $3m would also go towards illuminating some of Melbourne’s most significant trees – such as the 100-year-old palm trees along the Yarra River, the boulevard of elm and plane trees along St Kilda Rd and the plane trees of Collins St – as well as running trails.
The council would undertake an audit of running tracks and fitness areas around the city to identify areas where lighting needs to be improved.
Mr Reece would also set up a $2m grants program under his plan, which would allow building owners to apply for grants to improve their facade lighting.
Liberals’ plan for rate relief
The Liberal ticket running in the Melbourne City Council election has pledged to slash rates for residents and businesses in a bid to reinvigorate the city.
“High costs, rising rates and policies that punish small businesses have driven people away,” Liberal lord mayoral candidate Mariam Riza said.
“We will return rates to pre-pandemic levels, giving residents some much-needed financial relief.”
Rates were frozen in 2020-21 and discounted in 2021-22 by former lord mayor Sally Capp, but have risen since then.
The Liberals’ promise to return rates to 2019 levels is in addition to their policy to offer a five per cent cashback on rates for businesses who bring workers back to the office five days a week.
Lead councillor candidate Owen Guest said both policies were aimed at creating a council which focused on the “basics”.
“At the end of the day, this comes down to living within our means as a city, not wasting money on pet projects, and ensuring we deliver services as efficiently as possible,” Mr Guest said.
“Whether it is climate change or Gaza, we will bring council’s focus back to basics.”
Mr Guest also attacked incumbent Lord Mayor Nick Reece for delays over restoring the Captain Cook statue in Fitzroy Gardens after it was chopped down by vandals in February.
“The police and council have CCTV footage of the vandalism and (failure) to restore the monument is typical of the council,” he said.
“What we need is more police backed with the authority to act on and prevent crime.”
Wood doubles down against CBD safe injecting room
Lord mayoral candidate Arron Wood has reaffirmed his opposition to a safe injecting room in Melbourne’s CBD despite one of his key advisers having a long history of supporting the idea.
Steve Michelson is Mr Wood’s campaign manager and, somewhat unusually, a councillor candidate at the bottom of the Wood ticket.
Mr Michelson has long advocated for a second injecting room in the CBD through his association with the “Keep Our City Alive” campaign, which is at odds with Mr Wood’s pro-business, anti-injection room rhetoric.
Mr Wood’s firm anti-injection room stance put him at odds with former lord mayor Sally Capp during his time as her deputy.
“I wrote and moved the motion to reject the injecting room for the Melbourne CBD,” Mr Wood said.
“My opposition to a medically supervised injecting room in the CBD is on the record and has not changed.”
Mr Wood reiterated he was the one in charge when it came to setting policies.
“As the independent lord mayoral candidate for Team Wood, I have ultimate responsibility for setting the policies of our team,” he said.
“I have a diverse group of independent candidates on Team Wood made up of local residents, small business people and community champions, but support for a CBD injecting room will never be part of my platform.”
Plans for a safe injecting room in the CBD, to go with the one already in North Richmond, were shelved by the Allan government in April against the recommendations of a report from former police commissioner Ken Lay.
Originally published as Lord mayoral candidates unveil final election policies as race for the city’s top job nears an end
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