Countback to fill O’Keeffe vacancy on Greater Shepparton City Council

By Anna McGuinness

Dec 14, 2022

New role: The position on Greater Shepparton City Council left by state Member for Shepparton Kim O'Keeffe is set to be filled in a countback. Photo: Murray Silby. Photo by Murray Silby

The vacant position on Greater Shepparton City Council left by former mayor and newly elected state Member for Shepparton Kim O’Keeffe is set to be filled in a countback next month.

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Ms O’Keeffe stepped down as mayor in June and took a leave of absence to run for the Nationals at the November state election.

Council has been operating a councillor short since her departure.

Following Ms O’Keeffe’s success on election day, she resigned from council on November 28.

Her vacancy is set to be filled on January 16 with a countback of votes from the council election in October 2020.

Earlier this year Rob Priestly’s position on council was also filled by a countback when he resigned after running for federal parliament, with Dinny Adem elected.

Ms O’Keeffe received the highest number of first preference votes at the October 2020 election, with 18.8 per cent, followed by Mr Priestly, 15.04 per cent, and Shane Sali, 14.99 per cent.

The unsuccessful candidates at the election were Ben Ladson, Dinny Adem, Royden James, Zahra Haydar Big, Shelley Anne Sutton, Andrew Bock, Allan Turner and Steve Neff.

During the countback, preferences from the vacating candidate and other ineligible candidates are distributed to those remaining, until a candidate meets the quota.

If a countback fails or the position is unable to be filled, a by-election is held.

In her six years with council, Ms O’Keeffe was deputy mayor for one year and held the mayoral role for four years, and also chaired Regional Cities Victoria in a first for the region.

Ms O’Keeffe said she was proud of what council had achieved, working with local organisations, lobbying for the Maude St Mall and hospital redevelopments, and infrastructure projects including Shepparton Art Museum.

“One of the biggest surprises for me was the economic driving opportunity council actually has,” Ms O’Keeffe said.

“I didn’t realise the extent of what that meant until I got in there and realised there was so much we could do for our region.”

However, she highlighted affordable and social housing as an area that still needed work.

“There’s such a need and I’ll still be working very hard in that space; obviously the floods have brought that to a whole new level,” Ms O’Keeffe said.

“In the past it’s been difficult to get the right land, the right investment, the right opportunities, and we have had some funding, so it’s just been a matter of making it all line up.”