By Cara Waters
Familiar faces have resurfaced as candidates for local government after nominations closed for the coming council elections.
In the City of Melbourne election, councillor Kevin Louey – who has a reputation as a “kingmaker” because of his influence on elections – has nominated to run on Lord Mayor Nick Reece’s ticket.
Candidates for the Arron Wood team in the City of Melbourne election: (left to right) Steve Michelson (councillor candidate),Hala Nur (councillor candidate), Nicholas Zervos (councillor candidate), Cathy Oke (councillor candidate), Arron Wood (candidate for Lord Mayor), Erin Deering (candidate for Lord Mayor), Philip Le Liu (councillor candidate), Hope Lai Wei (councillor candidate) and Michael Caiafa (councillor candidate). Credit: Joe Armao
Nominations closed at 12pm on Tuesday, with the polls to be held across the state in October.
One City of Melbourne councillor, who asked to remain anonymous, said Louey’s contacts in the Chinese community were key to his influence.
“I don’t think anyone knows exactly what Louey does,” they said. “He somehow has a role in making things accessible for certain people.”
Veteran pollster and political analyst Kos Samaras said Louey’s influence was sometimes overstated.
“If you were to look at how the municipality votes, you have the residents and non-residents – the residents component behaves in line with party political affiliation, so it is who wins the other group that will come out on top,” he said.
“Does Kevin have influence over them? Probably some of them. If you look at it, there is significant pain [the business] sector has endured. It’s an incumbent ticket and incumbency right now is not flavour of the month.”
Louey previously held first spot on former lord mayor Robert Doyle’s tickets and ran on Sally Capp’s winning team in 2020.
Reece’s ticket also includes deputy mayoral candidate Roshena Campbell, former aerobics queen Sue Stanley, Ripe Cheese founder Mark Scott, digital entrepreneur Lisa Teh, community organiser Hamdi Ali, Southbank3006 deputy president Jannine Pattison and professional Simone Hartley-Keane.
Kevin Louey is running again on Nick Reece’s ticket, he was sworn in on Sally Capp’s ticket in 2020. Credit: Wayne Taylor
Louey said he was looking forward to being part of Reece’s team and standing up for small businesses and residents across the city.
“I’ve worked closely with Nick and Roshena over the past four years and I believe they have exactly the kind of vision that Melbourne needs to thrive – from rate freezes for residents and businesses to more action to make our city safer,” he said.
Rival lord mayoral hopeful Arron Wood’s ticket is deputy mayoral candidate Erin Deering, current councillor Philip Le Liu, former councillors Cathy Oke and Nicolas Zervos, social worker Hala Nur, Queen Victoria Market trader Michael Caiafa, Docklands resident Hope Wei and Wood’s campaign manager Steve Michelson.
Oke is a former City of Melbourne Greens councillor who accused ex-lord mayor Doyle of sexual harassment. In 2021, Doyle apologised for his actions towards three women during his time in office after three separate independent investigations found his behaviour constituted sexual harassment and misconduct.
Michelson is a Labor party member and was – until he quit in 2017 after photos emerged of him dressed in a “blackface” costume – an aide to Bill Shorten.
The Greens ticket is Roxane Ingleton for lord mayor and Marley McRae Mcleod for deputy, while current councillor Dr Olivia Ball, Aaron Moon and Barry Berih are also running.
Independent Jamal Hakim has teamed up with deputy lord mayoral candidate Esther Anatolitis, architect Michael Smith, global equities expert Lawrence Lam, and strategic communications leader Judy Gao.
Former Carlton star Anthony Koutoufides’ ticket includes former federal Liberal MP turned fitness instructor Gladys Liu, ex-Wyndham councillor and property developer Intaj Khan, fellow commercial property developer Zaim Ramani and former triathlete Emma Carney.
Roxane Ingleton, lord mayoral candidate for the Greens.Credit: Luis Ascui
The Labor ticket is consultant Phil Reed, lawyer Virginia Wills, councillor Davydd Griffiths, community development worker Zainab Sheik and fellow of the Centre for Sustainability Leadership Michael Aleisi.
Businessman Gary Morgan’s ticket includes Rafael Camillo – the head of Residents 3000 – and Liz Ge and William Caldwell.
Former councillors who were sacked in Casey in one of Victoria’s worst corruption scandals are also running again.
After more than five years of investigations, evidence before the Independent Broad-based Anti-corruption Commission and the release of the Sandon report – which found that developer John Woodman sought to sway council planning decisions through private payments and/or campaign donations – none of the Casey councillors were convicted of any offence so are eligible to run again.
Former deputy mayor and ALP member Wayne Smith, one of the then-councillors that IBAC found had benefited from the donations but had failed to declare conflicts of interest when dealing with Woodman-related projects, is running again.
One-time Liberal MP and former councillor Gary Rowe has also nominated to run again – despite IBAC finding he too had failed to declare Woodman donations.
“That’s not true, there was no finding against me whatsoever,” Rowe told The Age on Tuesday. “I have long pockets now and I will be taking every opportunity to make sure the truth is told.”
In 2020, Rowe told an IBAC hearing he did not believe he needed to declare $10,000 in donations because they were made up of multiple proceeds from tickets sold to an event under the then-$500 disclosure threshold.
Former councillor and Liberal Party member Damien Rosario is also running again, though he was not named in the Sandon report or accused of wrongdoing.
Electoral analyst Ben Raue said it was not unusual to see councillors running for election even if the council they served in had been sacked.
“Usually, there are a few people who come back – whether they do well or not is another question,” he said.
“The popular support doesn’t completely go away just because you have been sacked.”
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