Copenhagen, not Docklands: Nick Reece wants to be lord mayor for real – here’s how

Melbourne’s newly crowned Lord Mayor Nick Reece has promised to insist on green space and community facilities in the city’s growth suburbs to avoid repeating the costly mistakes of Docklands and Southbank.

That pledge and a vow to make the city cleaner, safer and greener are part of his campaign – to be announced on Sunday – to retain the top job at the October council elections.

Candidate for Melbourne’s lord mayor, Nick Reece, wants growth suburbs to be like Barcelona or Copenhagen, not Docklands.Credit: JOE ARMAO

Reece, once a senior advisor to former prime minister Julia Gillard, was sworn in as Melbourne’s 105th lord mayor on Tuesday, following the resignation of Sally Capp. Until now, he’d declined to reveal whether he would run.

Confirming his candidacy to The Sunday Age, Reece said he would insist in discussions with the state government that community services, parks and green space be “done right from the start” in the growth areas of Fishermans Bend in Port Melbourne and at Arden and Macaulay in North Melbourne and Kensington.

The Allan government recently set the City of Melbourne an ambitious new target to more than double its housing stock by 2051 as part of a plan to boost the state’s housing stock by more than 2 million. There are community concerns that urban renewal precincts such as Arden in North Melbourne could be turned over to developers at the expense of liveability and public facilities.

Reece, the former deputy mayor to Capp, said the state government’s housing targets were in line with the City of Melbourne’s vision. But he argued that new development projects would need to avoid “the mistakes that were made in Southbank in the 1990s and Docklands in the 2000s”.

“In both of those cases, priority was given to development and developers’ profit … so the City of Melbourne have spent the last three decades trying to retrofit amenity into those areas where it wasn’t properly provisioned upfront,” he said.

“There’s huge potential in these growth areas for us to do something really special. These areas could be like Barcelona or Copenhagen, delivering medium-density housing, of the highest standards, with fantastic amenity and the Melbourne vibe.”

When The Sunday Age asked Reece about his financial backers for the election, Reece did not say if he would disclose them before polling day, but committed to rejecting donations from property developers in the City of Melbourne, the tobacco industry and gambling businesses.

Under Victorian law, candidates in council elections don’t have to submit details of their donations until 40 days after the election. This masthead will ask all candidates to declare their donors.

Reece in his lord mayoral robes during the week.Credit: Justin McManus

The cost of running a mayoral campaign has been estimated at $250,000 to $500,000.

In 2020, Reece ran on a “Team Capp” joint ticket, with the Capp campaign amassing more than $316,000 in donations, topped by $25,000 from Pratt Holdings, associated with one of Australia’s richest men, Anthony Pratt.

Council insiders have said the race for lord mayor is likely to come down to Reece and another former deputy mayor, Arron Wood, who is tipped to reveal whether he will run in the coming weeks.

Reece, who lives with his family in Carlton, was one of the original “Mo Bros” at men’s charity Movember, which raises money to raise awareness of men’s health issues, such as prostate cancer, testicular cancer and men’s suicide.

He was first elected to the Melbourne council in 2016, when he ran with Wood on the ticket of disgraced former lord mayor Robert Doyle, a former leader of the Victorian Liberal Party, before serving as Capp’s deputy for several years.

While he ran as an independent in 2016 and 2020, Reece’s history working with Gillard and other Labor leaders – including former state premiers John Brumby and Steve Bracks – has prompted questions about his political allegiances.

With Adam Sims – a former media director to premier Daniel Andrews and is now managing partner in a consultancy launched by some of Andrews’ closest former advisors – aiding Reece’s lord mayoral campaign, these questions are unlikely to disappear.

Asked if he was prepared to challenge the Labor state government on behalf of the people and businesses of Melbourne, Reece reiterated he was running as an independent candidate.

“I will only have one boss, and that is the people of Melbourne,” he said.

Reece has promised to attract more events to Melbourne and make the city more appealing for businesses. He wants to increase the number of local markets in inner-city neighbourhoods, and has also committed to delivering the Greenline project, despite ongoing funding challenges.

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