Image: Filth Harmony on the main stage. Image BBC3
By DANIEL LO SURDO
Labor councillor Dylan Parker was reelected as Randwick City Mayor while Kym Chapple succeeded outgoing Greens councillor Lindsay Shurey as the deputy mayor last month.
Cr Parker won the mayoralty in September, following fellow Labor councillor Danny Said, who was mayor for the previous two years. Parker was reinstated as mayor until September 2023 after receiving nine votes in the council chamber, with the remaining six votes given to the Liberal Christie Hamilton.
“It is an immense privilege and honour to serve one’s community, not only as a councillor but as mayor of this particular, very very special city,” Cr Parker said at the council meeting. “Any opportunity where I can be of assistance is definitely one that I would like to take up.”
Cr Chapple won the deputy mayoralty after sealing nine votes from councillors, sinking Liberal Bill Burst’s tilt for the posting. Chapple will hold the position until September.
“There’s a lot of amazing expertise and knowledge of our community in this room, and I can’t wait to work with all of you,” Cr Chapple said.
“I’m pretty excited to be on a council where we have a majority [of] women councillors and a female general manager, I think that’s a pretty exciting moment for this area.”
Party Politics
The Randwick elections last month resulted in greater Greens and Liberal representation on council after Independents Anthony Andrews and Carlos Da Rocha both lost their seats to Chapple (Greens) and Burst (Liberal), the two candidates for deputy mayor.
“In the eyes of most of this community they don’t see Liberal, Labor, Greens or Independent … they just see councillors who, in their eyes hopefully, are working towards a common goal,” Cr Parker said.
“It’s on all of us really to find some way, even though at points we may want to commit what can only be described as violence against one another … to constructively work together for the better of our city.”
For the first time in Randwick’s history, there is a majority female representation (eight seats) on council.
During the extraordinary meeting, finding sustainable outcomes to target climate change was discussed as a key challenge to address on the new term of council.
“Local government has been an incredibly powerful supporter of local communities in the last two years, and when it comes to looking after our neighbours and making real justice happen, I think this is an amazing place to be,” Cr Chapple said.
