Alex Nelson, Alice Springs News

The standout features of this year’s local government elections for Alice Springs are the imminent near wholesale replacement of all council members and the high number of candidates running for councillor.

With 25 candidates, it overtakes the 1988 campaign with 24 nominations for alderman as the second-highest on record.

The race for mayor has also attracted a strong field of hopefuls with seven candidates, but is well short of the record field of 10 who ran in 2021.

It is the third-highest on record, behind the eight who ran for mayor in 2008.

This brings us to another feature of the current campaign, with former mayor Damien Ryan running for councillor and his daughter Lisa-Marie Burgoyne one of the candidates for mayor – this is definitely a first in the ASTC’s history!

However, unlike his daughter in the current campaign, Ryan was a candidate for both mayor and alderman in 2008, but he easily won the mayoral race so never served as an alderman or councillor. He went on to become the town’s longest-serving mayor.

Historically, Lisa-Marie Burgoyne’s sole candidacy for mayor puts her in good company – previous successful mayor-only candidates were Andy McNeill (1992), George Smith (1977), Tony Greatorex (1976 by-election), and Jock Nelson (1971 – the first town council elections).

Both Nelson and Greatorex had substantial experience as former politicians at Territory or federal level; however, both also served less than one term as mayor, too.

In contrast, George Smith and Andy McNeill had no previous direct experience in politics but went on to serve two terms as mayor of Alice Springs (Smith retired early in 1983, triggering a by-election).

Incidentally, Smith and McNeill share some interesting links – first, both won their original campaigns out of fields of three candidates for mayor.

In the April 1983 by-election, Alderman Leslie Oldfield also won the race for mayor out of three candidates.

In turn, she was defeated by Andy McNeill in 1992 – the only time an incumbent Alice Springs mayor lost office.

The 1992 council elections also featured the lowest number of candidates for alderman – just 11 running for 10 positions.

Typically, most elections attracted a range of 17 to 21 candidates for alderman or councillor.

The two previous highest fields of candidates were in 1971 and 1988, with 30 and 24 nominations respectively.

The hot-button issues for both elections were markedly similar – the beginning of the Alice Springs Town Council in 1971 and the expansion of the town’s municipal boundaries to include the rural areas in 1988.

In both cases, these were unpopular changes. Alice Springs had a long history of resisting local government since the 1950s.

A letter by young solicitor Paul Everingham summed up the general attitude long ago: “A couple of years ago, if I remember correctly, the people of Alice Springs indicated quite strongly that they had no desire for the Town [sic] to achieve local government status.

“It seems to me that the circumstances have changed very little in the intervening period and one has yet to see any concrete benefits held out to the community as a result of achieving such a status.

“One cannot, for instance, see that Darwin which has local government, is any better off for it, than this town.”

He concluded: “This town is run no worse and a lot better than most of its size under the current set up [Town Management Board] and I for one would be extremely loath to see an additional governmental machine or bureaucratic wall imposed upon us” (“Against Local Government,” Advocate, 12/11/1970).

Nevertheless, local government was “imposed upon us” the next year, and Everingham was elected as an alderman on the first Alice Springs Town Council, commencing a long, colourful career in Territory and Federal politics.

Interestingly, Everingham ran within a seven-member ticket of candidates, with the eighth position “reserved … for your own personal deliberation” (reflecting the original number of aldermanic positions on the council, later expanded to 10).

Four of this first-ever ticket were elected onto the new council, including former Town Management Board president Brian Martin who later became the second mayor of Alice Springs.

In 1988, the prospect of the rural area being included within the town council’s expanded boundaries was equally unpalatable to many residents but, faced with its inevitability, a public meeting was convened on April 27 from which a ticket of 10 rural candidates was chosen (I was one of the candidates).

Unlike 1971, however, none of the rural ticket in 1988 were successful.

Finally, to the current campaign featuring 25 candidates, the question is begged – what is the hot-button issue that has attracted so many nominations?

No controversial issues have emerged within the local community to distinguish this campaign.

The major factor seems to be simply the record high turnover of council members, with incumbent mayor Matt Paterson stepping down after just one term (the first to do so since the mid-1970s) and all but two of the current councillors also retiring.

Only one, Allison Bitar, has opted to run again for councillor; and, although no guarantee, history shows that name recognition and incumbency are likely to favour her return.

However, Eli Melky – the town’s record longest-serving councillor – has chosen the high-risk all-or-nothing approach of running for mayor only. History is not so kind to such candidates.

With so few incumbents standing again, there is obviously a better chance than usual for new faces to appear in the next council.

The elephant in the room, surely, is why is there such a wholesale changeover of nearly all council members? This hasn’t happened on such a scale before.

Given that we’ve frequently been told the expiring council has been one of the most harmonious and least controversial of all in recent memory, it seems strange on the face of it that suddenly nearly all of its members haven’t sought re-election.

Perhaps it points to problems behind the scenes for the operation of local government in our fair town (and further afield), harking back to the words of warning in Paul Everingham’s letter published some 55 years ago.

This article appeared on Alice Springs News on 9 August 2025.