Yarra Council replaces Greens mayor with first-term independent councillor

THE MELBOURNE council that dumped Australia Day has also dumped its mayor, replacing the controversial Greens aligned councillor with an independent.

THE Melbourne council that dumped Australia Day has replaced its Greens mayor with an independent.

Yarra Councillor Daniel Nguyen, who is not affiliated with a political party, was elected last night at a special council meeting.

The first-term councillor takes the reins from Greens Councillor Amanda Stone, whose tenure was marred by controversy, including the decision to dump Australia Day out of respect to Aboriginal people.

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Cr Nguyen said he wouldn’t shy away from social advocacy but said the council had to communicate better.

“These issues have been controversial but a lot of it has been lost in translation,” he said.

“What we have to do as a council is to really get back to engaging with our community, but also sharing those experiences as to why we are undertaking those things.”

Yarra Council’s new mayor Cr Daniel Nguyen. Picture: Yarra City Council website

Yarra councillor James Searle narrowly missed out on being elected mayor. Source: Yarra City Council website

The 29-year-old said he wanted to engage with Yarra’s young people to get “different voices” into council.

“In Richmond we have 50 per cent who are renters, young people and people that study in the area,” he said.

Cr Nguyen defeated Greens Councillor James Searle five votes to four.

The vote was a blow to the Greens, who stormed the council in 2016, winning a record four seats and the mayoralty.

Under Cr Stone’s leadership, Yarra made headlines with a number of unpopular proposals, such as a new $247 annual bin tax and a monument to heroin users.

Former Greens Mayor of Yarra Amanda Stone faced backlash after dumping Australia Day. Picture: Aaron Francis

Both ideas were promptly dumped after public outcry.

The council lost its power to hold citizenship ceremonies after it voted to stop holding them on Australia Day.

And it was criticised for overreach following a motion intervening in Myanmar’s Rohingya refugee crisis.

But in a major victory, the council successfully lobbied the state government for a safe injecting room to deal with Richmond’s heroin crisis.

Greens Councillor Misha Coleman was elected to the newly created position of deputy mayor.

@edjgardiner