Former Chamber of Commerce deputy CEO named Darwin Council deputy mayor

Brian O’Gallagher, the former deputy chief executive of the Chamber of Commerce, has been named the new Darwin Council’s first deputy mayor in the rotating position.

BRIAN O’Gallagher, the former deputy chief executive of the Chamber of Commerce, was the only alderman to put himself forward for the first run as deputy lord mayor.

The deputy lord mayor role will be a rotating position throughout the 23rd term of the Darwin council with a new alderman to be voted in every four months.

Mr O’Gallagher said he was honoured to take on the position, seeing it as an opportunity to prove it was a new era of the Darwin council, vowing to see investment in suburbs outside of the Darwin CBD.

Brian O'Gallagher is the new Darwin Council’s first deputy mayor. Picture: Ivan Rachman

“I think it’s fantastic. We’ve had 50 per cent turnover in aldermen on council with six old members and six new members,” he said.

“It’s great the Lord Mayor has been re-elected but it’s also great to get one of the new council members as the deputy, showing this is the 23rd council, not the 22nd, and we’re bringing fresh ideas.

“I was elected by the residents of Waters Ward and, as far as I am concerned, they and the residents of Darwin are my boss and it’s them and their issues that they want to see ­tackled.

“Boulter Rd in Berrimah, we have 400 residents there. They don’t have streetlights or footpaths and I’ll be championing that issue.”

Lord Mayor Kon Vatskalis was also excited to see plenty of new faces on the council, saying the next four years will be interesting time for the Darwin council.

“It’s very exciting, you have new people with new ideas. I like the ­enthusiasm and they’ve come here with new, well thought out ideas,” Mr Vatskalis said.

“There’s a perception that the suburbs don’t get council spending.

“The three wards in the past three years got a lot of money and they will get even more now.

“For me, Darwin is not just the CBD, it is the full municipality of Darwin and the people there deserve the same as those in the CBD.

“Some of the mistakes we have seen have been made by the Territory government as in Boulter Rd, where they approved it and we have to pick up the pieces and fix it, which we will do.”

During the first council meeting with all the fresh faces on Tuesday night, the theme was making sure community safety and facilities were on top of the agenda.