It's taken three months, 28 back-and-forth emails, and several changes to the plans to organise a one-hour lunch with Australia's most powerful mayor.

So when the day finally arrives and I spot a diminutive figure, dressed in black pants tucked into black boots, a black blazer, red lipstick and short spiky black hair, striding across the empty park where I have been instructed to wait, I breathe a sigh of relief.