By Cara Waters
The race to be Melbourne’s next lord mayor is heating up, with candidates out and spruiking what they aim to deliver for the city.
Incumbent Lord Mayor Nick Reece wants to be elected in his own right, while Arron Wood – who missed out on the top job at the last election – is back again.
Labor is running Phil Reed, the Greens have Roxane Ingleton and the Liberals are yet to pick a candidate, with independents Anthony Koutoufides and Jamal Hakim the wildcards in the pack.
The Age has taken a look at the policies each candidate is pitching ahead of the October election.
Nick Reece became lord mayor when Sally Capp stepped down and is seeking to be re-elected in his own right. Credit: Justin McManus
Nick Reece
Party: Independent.
The current lord mayor is walking the tightrope, trying to distinguish himself from the City of Melbourne’s past leadership under the departed Sally Capp, while acknowledging he was part of that leadership team for six years.
“It’s a case of continuity with change,” Reece said. “There’s a lot of really positive things that the City of Melbourne has achieved in this term, and we want to see those continue plus it’s also an opportunity for renewal, to put to the public some big, new ideas.”
His pick of Liberal councillor Roshena Campbell as his running mate for deputy mayor creates some interesting policy conundrums, as they have often voted differently in meetings.
Integrity: Reece has refused to reveal his donors until 40 days after the elections. He has said he would not accept donations from the tobacco or gambling industries or property developers within the city. He has not ruled out accepting donations from developers in other jurisdictions.
Cost of living: Reece will reduce the price of pool admissions to $2 and make children’s swimming lessons free within the city. “We know the cost of living is biting and families are making tough decisions about what they can and can’t afford – that’s why we are focused on making it easier for people to get to the pool, have a swim, and access the crucial early lessons they need to swim well and keep safe,” he said.
Housing: Old office buildings in Melbourne’s CBD could be turned into apartments under Reece’s policy of incentives for developers and reduced rates.
Crime and safety: Reece wants to double the number of security cameras in Melbourne by installing an additional 200 at a cost of $13.65 million. He will target city hotspots and areas where crime rates and anti-social behaviour are at their highest, and will extend coverage into Southbank, Docklands, Carlton, West Melbourne, North Melbourne and Kensington.
Environment: Reece wants to bulk buy renewable electricity under a scheme he calls “MPower”, and claims it could benefit more than 1 million people and small businesses. “In emissions reduction, it would mean removing the equivalent of 1 million cars from the road,” he said.
E-scooters: The incumbent lord mayor made a snap policy change this month to ban hire e-scooters in the City of Melbourne.
Reece led the council push to ban e-scooters from the city.Credit: Paul Rovere
Bike lanes: Reece is yet to release his policy on bike lanes, but it could be a point of conflict with Campbell, who described the lanes as “anti-car” and a failed experiment. In 2022, she was removed from the transport portfolio in the council because of her opposition to bike lanes.
Events: A “Light up Melbourne” policy to install designer decorative lighting in 20 of Melbourne’s laneways at a cost of $8 million.
Arron Wood
Party: Independent.
The former deputy lord mayor is having another push for the top job, this time on a ticket with bikini entrepreneur Erin Deering as his candidate for the deputy role. “We’re quite early in the campaign,” he said. “We’ll have a really good suite of policies that are about supporting the key issues that Melburnians are worried about.”
Arron Wood is running for lord mayor with Erin Deering in the run for deputy mayor.Credit: Justin McManus
Integrity: Last election, Wood declared donations to his campaign in real time, but this time he is yet to make a similar commitment. “We think any kind of regime needs to be mandatory for all donors,” he said. “We haven’t made a final decision on it.”
Cost of living: Addressing price pressures was Wood’s top priority, he said, and if elected, he would freeze rates for residents and businesses for one year. “I’ve just been staggered when Town Hall is talking about the things that they’re doing for the city, cost of living hardly rates a mention, and yet it’s the biggest issue facing families and businesses,” he said.
Wood said he would also review the council’s “blunt” waste charge of $330 for properties valued above the median and $145 for properties valued below, cut the cost of primary residential annual parking permits by $10 from 2024 rates, and freeze fees for pool, gym and recreation centres at current rates through to 2026.
Housing: No policies announced yet.
Crime and safety: Wood wants to make the city cleaner by expanding designated graffiti sites for “legitimate artists”, to collaborate with legislative bodies to introduce stricter penalties for graffiti.
“People may say, ‘Well, what’s graffiti got to do with city safety?’ What we know from all of the research is that people’s perceptions of safety are lower when there’s tagging and graffiti on buildings.”
Environment: No policies announced yet.
E-scooters: Wood’s plan – announced before the recent ban on rental e-scooters – is to require operators to install cameras to prevent riding on footpaths and to reduce speeds to 12km/h. “These are sensible proposals that would enhance safety while promoting a sustainable transport option and not exposing the City of Melbourne to possible legal challenges,” he said.
Bike lanes: No policies announced yet.
Events: Annual Christmas parade, European-inspired Christmas markets in Southbank, and returning the Epicure Gingerbread Village to Town Hall are among Wood’s plans.
Roxane Ingleton
Party: Greens.
Ingleton works in the public hospital system as a midwife and has lived in the City of Melbourne for more than 20 years. Her running mate as deputy is Marley McRae McLeod, a 20-year-old CBD resident and mental health peer support worker.
Roxane Ingleton hopes Melbourne can become a healthy, affordable and sustainable city.Credit: Luis Enrique Ascui
“We really want to see Melbourne come back from COVID as an affordable, sustainable and healthy city,” Ingleton said.
Integrity: Ingleton is disclosing campaign donations in real time.
Cost of living: Cheaper sustainable energy is Ingleton’s focus. “I see other candidates out there talking about rate freezes and rate reductions,” she said. “But 75 per cent of under-35s in Melbourne are renters, and I can guarantee you landlords are not going to be passing on any savings that they get from any rate freezes. Rate reductions are really only looking to help the businesses and the top end of town, and I don’t think that is helpful to the majority of our residents.”
Ingleton wants to expand the city’s bike lane network.Credit: Jason South
Housing: The Greens candidate is running on the issue of housing affordability and wants to mandate more public and affordable housing in the inner city. She wants 30 per cent of new developments in urban renewal areas within the City of Melbourne to be public and genuinely affordable housing. “We want to use council land to build affordable housing for key workers and to hold the state government to account on their promise for new public housing in Arden.”
Crime and safety: “We know CCTV does not stop crime,” Ingleton said. “It just lets us look at it afterwards. There is already a plan in place for the state government to provide more CCTV cameras.”
Environment: Sustainable energy provision to residents is a key policy. “We’ve had the pilot program of Power Melbourne which has been happening already with the council,” Ingleton said, “and we want to expand that and get more of those hubs around the city so that all our residents, whether they rent or own, whether they’re in apartments or houses, everyone can get access to cheap, reliable renewable energy.”
She will also focus on rehabilitating Moonee Ponds Creek, rejuvenating the Yarra, flood resilience and more green spaces and parks in the city.
E-scooters: Ingleton said due process was not followed in council’s decision to ban hire e-scooters from the CBD. “We are planning to go into this election with the platform of reviewing the way that it was done and looking at ways that we could make it work better.” She said measures such as designated parking spaces and technology that prevents e-scooters from being ridden on footpaths could be used.
Bike lanes: Expanding the network of protected bike lanes is the aim. “We’re Greens, of course. We love bike lanes and active transport – we just need it to be done the right way,” Ingleton said. “We need to be doing it so that people are getting around safely.”
Events: No policies announced yet.
Councillor Jamal Hakim is running for lord mayor as an independent on an integrity ticket. Credit: Luis Enrique Ascui
Jamal Hakim
Party: Independent.
The City of Melbourne councillor is running as an independent on a platform focused on integrity, and writer Esther Anatolitis is on his ticket to run for deputy lord mayor. “It’s time for change,” Hakim said. “It’s about making the change that the city needs to move forward.”
Integrity: Hakim has committed to disclosing all donations in real time and will not accept donations from property developers or gambling or weapons companies.
Cost of living: No policies announced yet.
Housing: Redeveloping the public housing towers in North Melbourne and Carlton is a plan where Hakim wants more transparency, “Not just selling off public land, for private interests, without working with community and ensuring that their lives are supported.”
Crime and safety: No policies announced yet.
Environment: Hakim will advocate for more greening of Melbourne’s laneways.
E-scooters: Hakim does not support the rental e-scooter ban and voted against it at the council meeting. “I think the e-scooter conversation should be about behavioural change,” he said. “We need to look at how any future proposal is well regulated.”
Bike lanes: Supportive of bike and mobility lanes, but said the existing lanes can be improved. “In some areas, we’ve pushed it very quickly, so it’s been a bit of a jolt,” Hakim said. “So we do need to make sure that the design is there.”
Events: Hakim has pledged $10 million towards celebrating Diwali, Eid and Hanukkah if elected, and wants to see council support for festivals extend beyond Christmas to recognise Melbourne as a multicultural city.
Planning: Opposes plans to redevelop the harbour side of Marvel Stadium into towers, which was this month approved by the state government. “It’s the wall of Docklands, the wall of shame,” Hakim said. “There is no information behind the decision around this development. No strategy documents, no consideration of public benefit, no proposals on how to manage things like overshadowing, wind or flooding.”
Carlton Football Club legend Anthony Koutoufides wants more planning approvals granted.Credit: Penny Stephens
Anthony Koutoufides
Party: Independent.
The former Carlton football great is running a “Team Kouta” ticket including former federal Liberal MP-turned-fitness-instructor Gladys Liu, former Wyndham councillor Intaj Khan and fellow commercial property developer Zaim Ramani.
Integrity: Koutoufides said his campaign was being self-funded by his team. He rejected the notion that having two developers on his team would make him the face of a campaign to promote property and business. “Property, businesses – I’m for everyone, not just them,” he said.
Cost of living: A plan to freeze rates for the next two years and advocate to reduce land tax.
Housing: More affordable housing and more planning permits are among Koutoufides aims. “Developers are waiting so long for permits, and we really want to get things moving,” he said.
Crime and safety: Increased police patrols for a safer city.
Environment: No policies announced yet.
E-scooters: Hire e-scooters could be allowed in the CBD with the right measures in place.
Bike lanes: The removal of some bike lanes could occur under Koutoufides’ plan to review the network in the CBD, in a bid to improve traffic flow.
Events: No policies announced yet.
Workers: Koutoufides will advocate to the state government to force CBD-based employees back into the office for at least four days a week.
He wants to offer incentives for retail, cafes and small businesses for social media marketing.
Phil Reed
Party: Labor.
Labor for Melbourne is campaigning under the theme of keeping local government local. “Unfortunately, Melbourne City Council elections have a tendency to turn into a battle of personalities instead of policies, and the focus needs to be reset on the needs of local residents and local ratepayers,” Reed said.
Labor candidate Phil Reed wants to restore the city’s voting system.
Integrity: Restoring one vote, one value is a key for Reed, by pushing for fairness and equity in the city’s voting system by removing voting rights from businesses without a registered Australian business representative. Reed also wants campaign donations capped at $4000 over four years from businesses and individuals.
Cost of Living: Reed is focusing on ensuring council service meet the expectations and needs of residents, such as libraries, toy libraries, maternal and child-health services, sporting and medical services. He wants to keep council assets and services in public hands to ensure public-sector comparators, and eliminate opportunities for price-gouging by private interests and service providers.
Housing: A plan to work with the state government to ensure a diverse mix of housing with a particular focus on affordability for those workers in low-waged jobs who support our economy. “Labor for Melbourne will also commission a council-wide audit of land and buildings to identify potential site under-use,” Reed said.
Crime and safety: Better lighting and safe zones in major pedestrian corridors around transport hubs, hospitals and parks.
Environment: Reed wants to prioritise connected green spaces and pocket parks across Melbourne by diverting resources from major projects such as the Greenline, a four-kilometre linear park along the Yarra’s north bank. He would support electric-vehicle ownership by establishing an app for sharing private chargers.
E-scooters: No plans to reintroduce hire e-scooters after the ban.
Bike lanes: Reed said he would work with road safety agencies, traders and residents’ groups to ensure bike lanes were meeting their objectives.
Events: Reed wants to work with trader groups and the major event sector to develop incentive programs to showcase and create trade opportunities for existing businesses, rather than short-term opportunities for traders from outside the city.
Gary Morgan
Party: Independent.
The owner of Roy Morgan Research is running for lord mayor for the seventh time and says he has been under-estimated in the past. “I’m looked on as an old pollster, but I run the most successful information business in the country,” he said.
Integrity: Morgan is self-funding his campaign.
Gary Morgan has run for lord mayor of Melbourne seven times.Credit: Jesse Marlow
Cost of living: No policies announced yet.
Housing: “Housing is a state issue,” Morgan said. “But of course, pull down the high-rise towers immediately and put decent houses there.”
Crime and safety: Morgan said safety in the city was a joke. “We need protective safety officers in the city, we don’t need new parking officers,” he said.
Environment: More parks and more renewable and solar power are among Morgan’s goals.
E-scooters: Supports the ban on hire e-scooters. “The trial undertaken was a failure of public policy by the state government and the council and the companies involved trashed that social licence,” he said.
Bike lanes: The bike lanes on Collins Street need overhauling, Morgan says, as he believes they’re currently “a death trap”, not properly integrated and don’t assist mobility and movement. “They’re confusing for everyone, useless, dangerous and lead to many accidents,” he said. “We need to either do it properly or get rid of these dangerous bike lanes once and for all. An example of good mobility planning are the bicycle lanes down Exhibition Street and William Street – that should be the model for what we introduce on Collins Street. This would involve getting rid of the parking on one side of the street.”
Events: Morgan wants to see more Australian artists performing in Melbourne and fewer international artists such as Taylor Swift.
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