Who is Cairns’ likely mayor Amy Eden?
From first being elected to council on four votes to striking out on her own, building a team and defeating the well-oiled Unity leader, Amy Eden has had a remarkable ascent to the top job. Here’s the key moments of her campaign.
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From being first elected to council on just four votes to striking out solo, forming her own team and pulling off a deafening win over Unity’s well-oiled machine, Amy Eden’s ascent to the top job is nothing short of remarkable.
Despite facing multiple challenges throughout an at-times rocky campaign, the first-term Division 5 councillor is all but certain to be elected the new Cairns mayor.
At 2.30pm Sunday, Amy Eden was sitting on 19,316 votes – 31.33 per cent of the tally – ahead of incumbent Terry James on 14,048.
It would put an end to three terms of Unity power and mark a fascinating new era in local politics, in which the 43-year-old is likely to wrangle a council made up of independents and a minority Unity bloc, without any party support.
Her election would also mark the second time in history a woman has held the role, after Val Schier’s term from 2008 to 2012.
The former Unity member first gained entry to council in the 2020 local government election, defeating Richie Bates for the Division 5 piece by just four votes.
Soon after Ms Eden defected and spent the rest of the term as a thorn in the Unity side, opposing efforts to introduce a tenant tax and ban dogs and fishing in the CBD while criticising council for making decisions behind closed doors.
She hails from the Northern Territory but moved to the Far North in 2003, where she finished a Bachelor of Social Work at James Cook University, Smithfield campus.
Ms Eden and her husband Nick Eden bought their first home in Smithfield in 2005 and later moved to Manoora, where they raised their two children, Ellie and William.
Prior to entering politics she was closely involved in the Manoora Community Garden and 3MPride, a community group that advocates for Manoora, Manunda and Mooroobool – three of Cairns’ lower socio-economic suburbs.
In 2017 she won both the Australian Institute of Management Cairns Community Leader award and the Cairns Business Women’s Club Volunteer of the Year award, and was a finalist of Cairns Regional Council’s 2019 Citizen of the Year awards.
During the election, Ms Eden shared a story from her childhood of how she would go hungry in hard times when her family’s business struggled to make ends meet.
“I grew up in a tourist park that my parents owned in the Northern Territory,” Ms Eden said.
“If we didn’t get customers and have a full park, we literally didn’t eat. It was a small business with mum and dad, my sister and I. That was our backbone.
“The wet season can be pretty harsh in the Territory, so you have to be built tough – and I am tough.”
Her bid to become the mayor has involved a number of bold promises including free year-round green waste disposal, a $1000 first home buyers rates relief and $2 summer swims at council pools.
She’s also run on a platform of making council transparent and accountable, with a promise to reduce red tape and restore community trust.
Whether she is able to keep these promises without any team support in the chamber remains to be seen.
Ms Eden’s campaign has also been coloured by controversy. Questions were levelled at her over an undeclared Cairns Cars partnership and claims she copied passages of a Toowoomba councillor’s social media post to run them as her own.
Eyes were also drawn to a profanity-laden corflute dispute between former mayor Bob Manning and John Andrejic, a former Cairns council CEO who was volunteering for Team Eden.
No other Team Eden candidates looked likely to be elected based on Sunday afternoon’s results.
Results so far indicate four Unity councillors will be re-elected – Jeremy Neal, Kristy Vallely and Rhonda Coughlan, as well as Brett Moller, whose division was uncontested.
New independents Matthew Tickner and Anna Middleton are on track to join Rob Pyne, Cathy Zeiger and Brett Olds in the chamber cross bench.
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Originally published as Who is Cairns’ likely mayor Amy Eden?
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