Vic: Doyle plans to bring excitement back to the city

AAP General News (Australia)
12-05-2008
Vic: Doyle plans to bring excitement back to the city

By Katie Bradford

MELBOURNE, Dec 5 AAP - Lord Mayor-elect Robert Doyle says Melbourne is already the
best city in the world - but he's determined to make it even better.

The former state Liberal leader who led the party to its biggest defeat in history
at the 2002 election, admitted it was nice to finally win a poll when he was elected into
the city's top job on Sunday.

Now he has won some power, Mr Doyle says he will be more than just a figurehead - he
will speak his mind and achieve things.

Cleaning up the city, making it more user-friendly and "exciting" will be his aim during
his reign.

First item on the agenda - getting to know the "business" of the City of Melbourne
and its $300 million worth of assets.

"First, it will be looking at all those things that make the city work and thinking
about how I can make those things better," Mr Doyle said.

"I'm not here just to cut ribbons and to shuffle papers - I'm here to do things.

"Melbourne's already the best city in the world - but it can be better still."

He said things would be done differently to how they were under his predecessor, the
extremely popular, with the public, John So.

"John showed a great passion for Melbourne. He supported a different candidate during
the election, but that's politics.

"I would like to see a council that's more united, that's more focused, more coherent
than the last one, I don't think people want to see councillors arguing in public."

Mr So's critics argued he was more a figurehead than a politician, and council in-fighting
dominated much of his last term as mayor.

Mr Doyle says he is confident councillors will work effectively with him and his deputy,
businesswoman Susan Riley.

Whether he can work effectively with the state government will also be heavily scrutinised.

The big question around his term will be: how does a former state opposition leader
work with the long-term Labor government which gave him a hammering in the polls?

Mr Doyle insisted it won't be an issue.

"You have to be able to stand up to the state government and be the champion of Melbourne
and I'm going to show I can do that. I will have a good working relationship with the
state government, but we won't always agree."

He said he had a "very professional, very courteous, very encouraging" conversation
with Premier John Brumby on Monday, but hadn't yet spoken to opposition leader Ted Baillieu,
who replaced him.

"People will know my beliefs, they will know my policies, they will know my convictions,
but I promise them that I will not be bringing party politics to the city of Melbourne."

But Mr Doylesaid he's not afraid to speak his mind - and does so when outlining his
aims to "clean up" the city.

"If I don't think it's appropriate that we have bogans coming into our city binge drinking
and causing trouble, I'm going to say so and I'm going to remove them."

While his definition of every young person who travels in to the city as "bogans" may
offend some, that doesn't bother him.

"That is one of the joys of being the Lord Mayor of Melbourne, I can speak my mind
and I'm going to do so."

"Bogans" used to be "harmless mullets" wandering about but now they're a lot more sinister,
he said.

He defined bogans as being gangs of drunk and drugged young men who venture into Melbourne
seeking trouble, adding there needed to be more police visible on the street to deal with
them.

But most of all, he says he wants Melbourne to be a place of "excitement", a family-friendly
destination, as it used to be he when he was a youngster growing up in country Victoria.

"I always got a sense of excitement in the city of Melbourne and that's what I want
to bring back."

AAP kb/pmu/jfm/cdh

KEYWORD: DOYLE (AAP PROFILE) RPTG

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