Front row from left – Cr Angela Altair, Mayor Councillor Sandra Wilson, Deputy Mayor Cr Colleen Gates. Back row from left – Cr Peter Hemphill, Cr Paul Morgan, Cr Carl Marsich, Cr Jason Price

“You don’t look like a mayor,” a member of the Hobsons Bay business community said to me recently, but I couldn’t imagine what a mayor should look like.

I’m a woman in my 50s, I have a husband and two school-aged children, I’ve been active in my community campaigning for better public transport and support for volunteering. I’m passionate about the environment and economic development. Engaging young people in civic life and seeing them gain skills and meaningful work is a policy priority. That’s me. And I’m a mayor whether some people think I look like one or not.

Being elected Mayor of Hobsons Bay in 2013, just a year after being elected a Councillor, is a great honour and one that has me on a learning curve.

Putting on the mayoral robes and chain for the first time, with my family and friends sitting in the gallery, was an exceptional moment. The robes and chain come with history and give cause for reflection. They represent a commitment to community service and leadership; to bringing the Council together so the community can come together.

That my fellow councillors came to me and asked me to consider the role of mayor made the robes a precious symbol of good faith and trust in my ability to work constructively, collegiately with my Council in the interest of everyone who lives and works in Hobsons Bay.

It’s a great municipality, we have beaches and coastline; wetlands that are home to amazing birdlife; an historic seaport; and new and old suburbs that are home to people who have both lived here for generations or have arrived in recent times as migrants and refugees.

Hobsons Bay is a community in transition.

Our history of manufacturing and heavy industry is at the mercy of global economic forces and structural change.

For me as Mayor it means being in tune with needs as diverse as a major vehicle manufacturer in transition and the small but growing local community of Karen refugees from Burma (Myanmar). Each day as I meet with residents, association presidents, local sporting clubs and CEOs I’m always mindful that being Mayor means working towards both the big picture solutions and very localised responses.

I’ve reached my position through a passion for grass roots campaigning and standing up for what I believe. In the future, I’d like to see a sea change in local politics where you don’t have to be politically motivated nor an expert to be elected, but to be someone who recognises what leadership looks like. I would like to be a leader who helps and encourages people in the community to step up and participate in decision making.

Having spent my professional life working to promote the principles of equal opportunity, I’m proud to be on a Council which had until recently a majority of female councillors and has had more female mayors than some other Victorian municipalities.

Just a week ago I had the chance to thank 21 inspirational women from our community – they go about the business of helping others and building social cohesion not seeking recognition; they just do it because it’s a good thing to do. They are all women who could change the face of local government. It’s a shame that the level of government so close to the community can often lack a face – that our community thinks its local council is not representative of them.

I might not “look like a mayor” to some; but to me I’m part of the community and I’d like to think I’m a reflection of it.