Richard Marles (Corio, Australian Labor Party, Parliamentary Secretary for Pacific Island Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Thank you. I applaud the member for McPherson for her speech, as my grandfather retired to the Gold Coast and was a very keen bowler. That very much speaks to my memories of childhood.

Today is a noteworthy day for Geelong. With the weekend vote-counting nearing completion, the city will soon have its first directly elected mayor. Keith Fagg looks the likely winner. I would like to congratulate him on this result and his fantastic campaign. If events unfold as we expect, he really will be a very deserving winner. I would also like to take this opportunity to thank John Mitchell for his four wonderful years of service as Geelong's mayor, which provided stability and progress. I wish him the best for the future. This was a closely fought contest from a high-calibre field. The campaign gave the Geelong community welcome insight into what each candidate believed they could bring to the role and their skills and vision for our city. Our new mayor now has a unique opportunity to translate those campaign pledges into action, into a future for Geelong.

It is for that reason I believe that Geelong stands at a critical point in its history. For the first time, the mayor has a direct mandate from the people to lead our city. This mandate has invested the position of mayor with unprecedented authority. This represents a new beginning for Geelong. First, it provides the mayor with far greater authority over the council organisation than has previously existed. This authority will enable the mayor to lead the agenda of the organisation in a qualitatively different way. Second, there is now an opportunity to redefine the relationship with the Victorian government. Local government exists as an act of the state government, but that does not mean that the two cannot work as equals. With a direct mandate every bit the equal of state—and, for that matter, federal—members of parliament, our new mayor should expect more from his relationship with the Victorian government. For that reason, the state government should now establish a Geelong ministerial dialogue, which I call for today.

This would involve regular—perhaps quarterly—meetings between, on the one hand, Geelong's mayor, his or her deputy and the City of Greater Geelong's CEO; and, on the other, the Premier, the Treasurer, the Minister for Regional Cities, the Minister for Local Government and state government MP David Koch. These meetings would be an opportunity for the mayor and his team to secure the best outcome for our city—to drive the change, grow the economy and ensure our prosperity. It would be the key forum between the two tiers of government. Being mayor of a regional centre of the size and strategic importance of Geelong is about taking the city and the region in which it sits forward. It is a job that should focus on driving an agenda that will secure jobs for our workers, the wellbeing of our families and hope for our future. It is a significant and a substantial role.

Geelong has come a long way in the past two decades. We are a city proud of our heritage and optimistic about our future. We have every right to feel that way, and our new mayor can play a significant role in ensuring that our optimism is fulfilled.