Move over mayor Larry Hand from documentary Rats in the Ranks, fresh political bastardry is afoot between Labor and the Greens in Melbourne’s inner north lefty heartland of Merri-bek.
Victoria’s interminable local government elections have finally wrapped up, and the first order of business at each council is to elect a mayor to run meetings and appear in photo ops and so forth.
Greens councillor Adam Pulford lost the vote to become Merri-bek mayor.Credit: Justin McManus
On Sydney Road, the fight for Merri-bek’s robe and chains became a proxy war for the mouthwatering upcoming federal election showdown between Labor’s Peter Khalil and Samantha Ratnam from the Greens in the closely aligned seat of Wills.
A supercharged meeting unfolded on Wednesday night, as three Labor councillors wrangled another three unaligned council members to defeat the Greens’ mayoral candidate, Adam Pulford.
Independent Helen Davidson won a 6-5 vote, with Labor’s Helen Politis as the new deputy. The Greens, for all their crowing about winning four seats on the council, were blindsided at being locked out. Labor is apparently quite chuffed at the outcome.
CBD hears the lead-up to the vote had everything: a promised Labor/Greens power-sharing agreement that fell apart; broken promises over preference deals; a frenzy of phone calls and backroom meetings. There was pleading, anger and even tears. Dramatic stuff!
A host of Labor types were in the gallery for the vote, including ex-councillors Lambros Tapinos and Mark Higginbotham, Labor state MPs Anthony Cianflone and Kathleen Matthews-Ward, and former Brunswick MP Carlo Carli.
Ratnam, an ex-Merri-bek mayor, was also there to see her colleagues nudged out.
Davidson offered a diplomatic way forward. “I provide a solid, independent perspective from this council moving forward,” she told the chamber in her push for the job. Or, as another councillor put it to CBD: “I don’t trust anyone.”
Meanwhile, in the People’s Democratic Republic of Yarra, the revolution is complete after the confirmation of councillor Stephen Jolly, formerly of the Socialist Alliance, as Dear Leader.
Jolly purged the Greens’ majority from the council at the election with a group of independents called “Yarra For All” that sounds and acts like a party but is definitely not a party (according to Jolly).
After being anointed Yarra mayor, Jolly wasted no time in deploying his power, introducing an “omnibus bill” motion at the next meeting with 35 recommendations.
The grab bag includes Jolly’s signature affordable housing policy, as well as local government classics such as angle parking (keep it), bin collection (more of it) and dog poo on the footpaths (too much of it).
But the item that caught CBD’s eye was a working group to deal with illegal raves (or doofs) on the Yarra River.
Ex-Socialist Alliance councillor Stephen Jolly is the new mayor of Yarra City Council.Credit: Luis Enrique Ascui
“What the residents are pissed about is some of the doofs leave the place in a f---ing mess,” Jolly told CBD. “But the last thing we want is to unleash the police on young people who can’t afford to go to nightclubs.”
As for the other councils, newly elected mayors include teal independent Sophie Torney in Boroondara, Liberal-aligned independent Hanna El Mouallem in Bayside and Labor’s Louise Crawford in Port Phillip.
Meanwhile, Aidan McLindon, from the anti-lockdown Freedom Party, is mayor of Whittlesea in the outer north.
Stick to your Rayguns
Regular consumers of News Corp’s content would know that corporate diversity, equity and inclusion is just the kind of thing that sends its columnists and presenters into paroxysms of fury.
In fact, just last week, Sky News ran a recent item from reporter Caroline Marcus declaring the ABC’s own DEI measures “radical activist rubbish”.
Raygun is presenting to a News Corp diversity, equity and inclusion event.Credit: Dominic Lorrimer
But forget the after-dark bluster. Next week, the Australian arm of the Murdoch media empire is set to host its third annual diversity, equity and inclusion event.
And you know the company is taking it seriously because it’s secured the services of Australia’s most successful cultural export of 2024 just for the occasion.
We’re talking, of course, about Olympic breakdancer Rachael “Raygun” Gunn, whose routine at the Paris Games spawned so many memes, and who has now clearly arrived on the motivational speaker circuit.
“We’re thrilled to welcome Olympian Rachael Gunn (aka Raygun) as our special guest, who will share her journey and explore the powerful role that community, connection and belonging have played in her life, as well as the importance of staying true to yourself,” an email invitation seen by CBD read.
We were desperate to know whether that might include busting a few moves, but neither News Corp nor Raygun’s people got back to us.
One of Raygun’s iconic moves.Credit: Getty Images
As this masthead reported, Raygun has recently signed with Born Bred Talent, and is hoping to turn her 15 seconds of virality into something more permanent. She’s already starting to ink a few brand deals.
“If I get an opportunity that resonates with my values and personality, then yeah, let’s work together,” she told our colleague Thomas Mitchell last week.
We sure didn’t think that would bring her to News Corp HQ in Sydney’s Holt Street for a pep talk on diversity. But viral fame leads people to some strange places.
Tough call
Sometimes you have to kiss the ring, whether it’s that of a billionaire or the all-powerful Board of Control for Cricket in India.
CBD’s eyebrows were raised at the news that cricket legends Ricky Ponting and Justin Langer were spending just one day in the Seven commentary box of the first Test in Perth against India before jetting to Saudi Arabia for the IPL player auction.
Ricky Ponting and Justin Langer will only call one day of the first Test.Credit: Getty Images
What would Richie Benaud have made of it all, we wonder.
Anyway, we hear that there is another event taking place in the mining town that means Punter and JL, who are head coaches of franchises in the IPL, can’t just skip the match completely and go straight to Jeddah to sharpen their bidding paddles.
Seven West Media chairman Kerry Stokes was to host a party at Crown in Burswood on Thursday night bringing together sport and media identities, including Cricket Australia chief executive Nick Hockley, to toast the start of the men’s red-ball season.
It’s an important time for Seven, as Friday brings with it the first Test match of the network’s new $1.5 billion rights deal with Foxtel.
The deal brought an end to acrimonious legal action between Cricket Australia and Seven over the quality of the white-ball competition, the Big Bash League. Thanks to the IPL, things will get off to a chaotic start.
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