So, the council election is now over and we are waiting for the dust to settle to learn of the winner

As we have for the past 25 years, Southbank Residents Association (SRA) held a “Meet the Candidates” event for our community to ask their questions. This was once again a full house affair, not only for attendees but for a Melbourne Cup field of mayoral candidates too, in fact a record number for the 10 years I have been president.

It is great to see so much interest in wanting to do more for the City of Melbourne. A remarkable turnaround from the Robert Doyle days of a tightly held council, term in and term out.

It was also heartening to see so many Southbank residents represented in the field, though with the exception of two, none were members or had been a member of SRA! Despite them all claiming to be community minded and focused, I was surprised I hadn't heard of or from any of them (with the exception of those two I just referred) or that during their time in Southbank they hadn't reached out to SRA.

Assuming these residents’ community interest wasn't superficial for the purpose of council elections, our SRA committee has therefore decided to bring all these candidates together and find common goals to see what we can all collectively do for our community. With this much interest we need to harness that energy for the better good of the community.

Early counting appears to have incumbent Lord Mayor Nicholas Reece in a strong lead, but not enough to claim victory outright, so preferences will be crucial.

During his tenure, Cr Reece has listened to Southbank and has lobbied for some great outcomes. He would always answer my calls and afforded SRA any time we may request.

If Cr Reece is successful, we are confident this relationship will continue and only grow stronger.

In any case, through our Meet the Candidates event we were able to form bonds with all prospective Lord Mayors, highlighting SRA as an important advocacy voice for our community and looking forward to while also knowing that we will be able to work closely with whomever wins the privilege of leading our city.

You too may have a desire to put back to the community. SRA is always on the lookout for like-minded members of our community to help with our community work.

If you have an interest to find out more about what we do, then we would love to hear from you. We can be reached at [email protected] •