Tania Brown secures enormous lead in Wollongong's Lord Mayoral election

For the first time in history Wollongong is set to have a woman take the position of Lord Mayor with Labor’s Tania Brown well ahead of the pack.

Councillor Brown has secured 40 per cent of the vote as of Monday, 16 September, and coming in second is The Greens’ Jess Whittaker with about 25 per cent.

Unlike surrounding councils – all of which have had a female lead previously – in Wollongong the mayor is voted on by residents rather than councillors.

Cr Brown has served as Deputy Lord Mayor since 2019, and been an elected councillor since 2017.

She took a tilt at the top job in the 2021 election but lost to the popular former Lord Mayor Gordon Bradbery, who announced his retirement ahead of this election.

“It’s been a big week,” Cr Brown said.

“On election night when we saw some of the bigger booths come through with swings of 15-to-25 per cent our way we thought we had a lead that would be hard to catch.

“I was a bit overwhelmed. Even though you work hard for it, the reality of it was a bit of a shock.

“Norma Wilson ran against Frank Arkell back in 1983, so we’ve waited 40 years since that time to get close to having a woman as Lord Mayor.

“It feels really good for Norma and other women. It just means for the next woman, it’s not such a big hurdle and that’s the piece that really matters to me.”

Wollongong Council is going to look profoundly different from last term.

At least eight new councillors will join the ranks after as many stepped down. No Liberal party members will be elected after the party failed to submit essential paperwork ahead of the election.

On Monday it looked as though of the 12 incoming councillors, seven or eight would be from the Labor Party, three or four from The Greens, and the remaining spots would likely be taken by independents.

There are still plenty of votes left to be counted however, and final results aren’t expected to be declared until October.

Cr Brown said it would take some time to bring new councillors up to speed.

“Staff are preparing lots of workshops and education sessions to make that happen,” she said.

Priorities for the incoming Lord Mayor are housing affordability and the footpath budget.

“I’ll ask the General Manger to review our affordable housing strategy and look at what community land we have that could be used,” she said.

“Footpaths came up across the city as something people want us to focus on.

“We’ve talked about it a lot previously and haven’t managed to find more money, so I want to look at where we could get funding for that.”