Deputy Lord Mayor Tania Brown has been endorsed by Labor to run for Wollongong City Council Lord Mayor in September. Photo: Tania Brown.
Long-serving Deputy Lord Mayor of Wollongong City Council Tania Brown has announced she will take a tilt at the top job following Gordon Bradbery’s announcement he will step down after 13 years as Lord Mayor.
On Friday (17 May) Cr Brown confirmed she has been endorsed as the Australian Labor Party (NSW Branch) candidate for Lord Mayor of Wollongong at the upcoming Wollongong City Council elections.
“I am determined to be a strong voice for our community and I have the experience to lead our city into the future,” Cr Brown said.
“As Lord Mayor I will provide stable and effective leadership for Wollongong and will work tirelessly to deliver a customer-focussed council.
“The Labor team and I are focussed on tackling the housing crisis, investing in our suburbs and seizing opportunities to improve our local economy and deliver jobs for our community.”
Cr Brown grew up in Unanderra, and has lived, worked and raised her family in the Wollongong area.
On council, Cr Brown has championed a taskforce to coordinate economic recovery post-COVID, held a skills roundtable, called for the Building Commissioner to open an office in Wollongong, tackled construction noise in the CBD and called for an audit of DAs linked to the delivery of affordable housing.
Cr Brown works at the University of Wollongong and ran an infrastructure research centre for 13 years. Prior to joining the university in 2009, she was a senior ministerial policy advisor, having spent 13 years working for state and federal governments.
Tania was first elected to Wollongong City Council in 2017, re-elected in 2021 and has served as Deputy Lord Mayor since 2019.
On Thursday (16 May) the current Lord Mayor and former Uniting Church minister Grodon Bradbery announced he would not contest the job in September’s local government elections.
“I had a birthday last week – another circle around the sun as they say – turning 73 and I was reminded this is a four-year stint so that means I’d be 77 going on 78 and I have to be realistic about life,” he told Region Illawarra.
“While I’ve got the energy and the abilities, I still want to travel and do other things, so now’s the time.”
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