Marriage advocate makes Council bid
Australian Marriage Equality (AME) national convenor Alex Greenwich will stand as a candidate for the City of Sydney as part of Lord Mayor Clover Moore’s independent team.
Greenwich made the surprise announcement this week and said that his new role would allow him to champion LGBTI causes at the local level while he would continue his work with AME pushing for legal recognition of same-sex marriage.
“I really want to ensure that Sydney continues to be the welcoming supportive and accepting place for the GLBTI community which it is today, and that’s obviously been the case because of a lot of the work Clover has done over the years,” Greenwich said.
“We are a global gay capital and it’s really important that stays the case for all sorts of reasons… for GLBTI youth, for supporting all the gay community groups that the City does, and supporting the important small business sector within the gay community.”
Cr Moore unveiled her team for the September local government elections with a pitch that was big on vision but did not spell out any new proposals for the City’s future, rather she focused on the continuation of her work over the last eight years in office.
Her new team also includes actress and journalist Nell Schofield, of Puberty Blues fame, among the new faces.
Moore spoke at length of her continuing commitment to a sustainable, liveable city through the promotion of light rail in the CBD, cycle ways, supporting creative arts and related industries, the ongoing small bar revolution and fighting alcohol related violence in areas like Oxford Street and Kings Cross.
“Now it’s time to pursue bigger and more exciting projects for our city – the introduction of local, low energy precincts to take Sydney off the coal fired electrical grid, the introduction of light rail down George Street and the development of a new city town centre complete with new facilities at Green Square,” Moore said.
Current Deputy Lord Mayor Robert Kok will make a bid for another four-year term and former Cr Robyn Kemmis, who served as a member of Moore’s independent team from 2004 to 2008, will be returning as a candidate.
Other new faces include the president of the Paddington Society, John Mant; academic Jenny Green, who helped lead the fight against backpacker vans in Potts Point; and Claudia Bowman, the chair of the Kings Cross parenting group, Junior Jivers.
