Stepping up: Cr Sam Spinks is embracing her new role as deputy mayor of Greater Shepparton City Council.
Photo by
Megan Fisher
Sam Spinks was recently announced as the new deputy mayor of Greater Shepparton City Council.
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The News sat down with her to learn a bit more about her plans, goals and aspirations.
The process of becoming deputy mayor involved nominations, elections and discussion, Cr Spinks said.
“How it works really generally is that we appoint our deputy mayor for a year and then each year we go through a nomination process and an election process to choose who will be the deputy mayor for the following 12 months,” she said.
“It’s not quite 12 months for me because of the way the timing has worked out; it’s going to end up being sort of nine to 10 months, but I’m happy with that.”
Councillors can step forward themselves to be nominated, and Cr Spinks jumped at the opportunity.
“I really wanted to put myself forward for it, and in terms of being able to do the council role, it’s not really that much different,” she said.
“I’ll still be passionate about serving the community; this is just an elevated opportunity to really be a little bit more prominent, a little bit further into the community, and to be able to support the mayor and all the other councillors for the next little while.
“So it’s a really good personal development opportunity and also just a way to serve the community even more.”
As deputy mayor, Cr Spinks said her goals included improving public health and increasing diversity among local decision makers.
“I wanted to balance our leadership a little bit more,” she said.
“I think that at all levels locally, whether it’s local government, state or federal, we have really strong sort of business and economic and industry representation, that it’s a real priority across all levels,” she said.
“I’m also hoping that I can bring the other side of the coin to the table, which is around public health and community development and the environment, and just a number of sorts of types of person that I fit into that isn’t really seen at the moment.
“So whether it’s being a queer person or a single parent, or, you know, a low socio-economic financial position, there’s a lot of different ways that I’m hoping I can balance out our leadership profile, which will just help to better represent our community even greater because representation matters.”
Passionate: Cr Sam Spinks speaking at the International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia and Transphobia 2023 at the Queen’s Gardens.
Photo by
Rechelle Zammit
In terms of local issues, Cr Spinks said her priorities remained the same.
“I originally ran, and it’s still true to this day, on just making really strong, good decisions; for me, I’m passionate about LGBTQIA+ issues and supporting our multicultural communities and First Nations communities around making sure that we have a good advocate for really good public transport,” she said.
Cr Spinks acknowledged the work of her predecessor and said she was excited to embrace the new role.
“I definitely want to take the opportunity to thank Cr (Anthony) Brophy for his time over the past two years as deputy mayor,” she said.
“I think he did an outstanding job in the role. He really took it on with dedication and commitment, which is what any of us would hope for in a deputy mayor.
“I think it’s a really wonderful opportunity that we’ve been able to share this role around and then now I’m getting an opportunity because it’s a really great personal development and learning opportunity to help each of us serve our community better, both on council and outside of it.”
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