Blacktown Mayor Stephen Bali to resign from council
After five years as mayor and 15 years on council, Blacktown Mayor Stephen Bali will step down this week due to his commitments as Blacktown state MP.
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After five years in office, a garbage truck protest at SBS and the announcement of a new university campus, Blacktown Mayor Stephen Bali will resign from Blacktown Council.
The Blacktown state Labor MP will step down from his council duties at Wednesday night’s extraordinary council meeting due to laws which prevent MPs from holding dual roles.
Cr Bali, who was first elected to council in 2004, was pivotal in progressing the council’s multimillion-dollar transformational projects, including the $76.5 million Warrick Lane redevelopment, Australian Catholic University’s Blacktown campus, the new International Centre of Training Excellence and animal rehoming facility.
Elected into a minority council with Cr Tony Bleasdale as deputy, Cr Bali said the heart of his mayorship was preparing the city for its monumental growth into the coming decades.
He said working with the community had been the most fulfilling aspect of the role.
“It’s been an absolute honour and a privilege to be able to represent the people of Blacktown as the mayor,” Cr Bali said.
“It’s been wonderful in relation to all the different people I’ve been able to meet with. “Whether they’re giving tirelessly with Lions, Rotary, Apex, or all the various charity groups out there raising money for the underprivileged.
“One thing about Blacktown we’ve been able to harness is this energy, the high volunteering aspect, because they’re the people that really build a quality of life and give people hope and opportunity.”
Growing up, Cr Bali said he was inspired by his political predecessors, including his late father and former deputy mayor, Charlie Bali, and former mayors John Aqulina and Jim Lynch.
“A lot of the work we have been able to do was off the backs of a lot of good mayors who worked very hard, but the opportunity wasn’t there at the time,” Cr Bali said.
“We got to a stage where we could financially do these projects and we had the political will of the council chamber. All of the moons aligned and this has been the revolutionary change of thought and the transformation now is the physical happenings.”
A lifelong Doonside resident, Cr Bali has tackled one of the city’s biggest challenges — it’s lingering stigma — head on, making international headlines in 2015 with his garbage truck protest outside SBS offices against the controversial documentary Struggle Street.
“The past five years, there’s been a whole range of things we’ve transformed in people’s lives. We’ve revolutionised, which allows transformation to take place. People’s thinking has gone from the struggles and keeping our heads down while people attack us,” he said.
“Tony (Bleasdale) was a massive support to me with Struggle Street. We decided to take a stand, after much discussion, because the people that generally watch SBS documentaries are really from the higher socio-economic, employer classes, and this would’ve created further irreparable damage for the youth as they apply for jobs and reinforce this negative stereotype.”
Reflecting on his mayorship, Cr Bali played a key role in the reopening of Mt Druitt pool, reintroducing the council’s Hall of Fame awards and Indigenous acknowledgment at council meetings, fighting against a proposed incinerator at Eastern Creek and lobbying for Doonside station upgrades.
He sought to continue to advocate for Blacktown in his role as state MP.
“As a person who has lived my entire life here, I’ve seen the adversities, seen chook farms and pig farms around Doonside, open space and not many people, and now we’re at a stage where we’re growing more than the Tasmanian population,” he said.
“My next role in the state is to advocate for Doonside lifts, to advocate for massive road infrastructure.
“If we’re going to be the size of Tasmania, we would expect some equivalence as far as financial support for financial infrastructure.
“That will be the next phase I will be supporting council in.”
Councillors are expected to vote for a new mayor and deputy mayor at an extraordinary council meeting tomorrow evening.