Of the 12 councils that elected mayors in October for their first two-year terms, six of them are women. While this fresh wave of parity sweeps across New England, we bring you a three-part series to meet the mayors who will be leading the way from 2024 into 2025.
In part one, we meet Margot Davis from Glen Innes, and Bronwyn Petrie from Tenterfield.
Meet Margot Davis of Glen Innes
“I am here to initiate conversations about how we are going to solve issues and live well.”
Margot Davis, the new Mayor of Glen Innes Severn, has a background in marketing and advertising, which gives her a ‘think differently and get things done’ mindset.
She also worked as Executive Manager of Local Connect (formerly Attract, Connect, Stay – Glen Innes), and became determined to make a difference in her hometown community, that she returned to seven years ago.
In her former role as Economic Development Manager at Glen Innes Severn Council, Margot drove socio-economic prosperity, and the visitor economy.
“I had a curious mindset, always looking at what plans, ideas, community needs, funding sources and resources could be interweaved to drive growth and prosperity,” she says.
Margot established her own consultancy with a plan to use her work and experience to deliver solutions that enable prosperity. During this time, she decided to enrol in a Pathways to Politics for Women course at UNSW.
“On that course I met so many incredible women in various levels of the government doing really great things,” she says.
“I didn’t really have a political affiliation or immediate ambition to enter into politics, but after completing it, I decided to leave that door open should something come up.”
Then along came the opportunity to run for Council and to be the next Mayor of Glen Innes Severn.
“Doing that course set me up for success,” Margot says. “With my advertising and marketing background, I knew how to run a campaign, but previously, I didn’t know how to run a political campaign.”
Margot was convinced that there was a need for new leadership, and, given the desire expressed in the community, that now is the time for change.
“I realised that my purpose was about building prosperity and generating creative ideas to help others to prosper whilst providing strategic leadership,” she says.
“My role is to create the pathway for ensuring that all councillors on our team can contribute to the strategic planning and processes needed to achieve what the community wants and needs. And to collaborate with the General Manager to ensure we are set up for success in developing our strategic plans for the community.”
Margot also recently completed a two-day leadership boot camp with Business NSW.
“One of the talks on the camp focussed on when there is a shift in your identity,” she says. “At a certain point in your life you shift, and flip from it all being about you, to it all being about others.”
As serendipity would have it, another shift was occurring – one where more women were stepping up to leadership roles across New England.
“There’s more equal representation in councils now,” Margot says.
“There are now more women who feel that they have the capability of stepping up, and communities accepting them on merit. It’s not a male/female thing, it’s all about capability, and others recognising that you possess strong leadership skills.”
Ultimately, Margot wants her community to be set up for growth.
“That means better services, better jobs, better working conditions, and then better outcomes and more people visiting,” she says.
“Healthcare and housing are the key issues that are hampering our growth and prosperity. This is not just about population – this is about creating prosperous, vibrant communities that people want to visit, work in, and live in.
“Youth crime is a real issue here, as it is with many of the other LGAs in our area,” she says. “To help solve this issue, we need to improve the socio-economic baseline and that means everyone having greater access to opportunity and wealth.”
Margot says that the goal is to improve the socio-economic prosperity of her region.
“That covers environmental, social, economic and cultural elements, and it’s about finding a balance for them all,” she says.
“That is the North Star for me. But how we get there is more than just a term. If we set the ambition now, then term after term, we can all reach our North Star.”
Meet Bronwyn Petrie from Tenterfield
“The standard you walk past, is the standard you accept.”
Bronwyn Petrie is a great believer in putting personal matters aside in order to stand up for what one thinks is right. She chose to give up her own business interests to become the Mayor of Tenterfield, and her parents have always been her biggest influence.
“My parents raised us to stay true to our values no matter the personal cost,” she says.
“They also had interest in national and world political situations, whereas I had never considered politics while at school.”
That changed when an environmental group placed wilderness nominations over vast areas of Tenterfield forests and private land. Bronwyn became involved in political lobbying and ended up resigning as Manager of the Tenterfield Motor Registry to become NSW State Coordinator of Timber Communities Australia, from 1995 to 2000.
She then went on to join the NSW Farmers Association Executive Council, working with families and communities across the state, advocating at both state and federal government level.
“At the NSW Farmers Association, we have a strong belief in production and conservation being able to occur in concurrence, as is evidenced across a lot of the Tenterfield Shire landscape,” she says.
After Bronwyn’s husband had a bad accident, she worked in Central Queensland driving trucks to keep their farms going. And as fate would have it, Bronwyn’s resignation from truck driving coincided with the 2016 council election.
Bronwyn has never been one to mince her words.
“At the time I had a personal interaction with a then-Council Director which was appalling, coupled with moves for the council to regulate paint colours,” she says.
“I decided that Council should have higher priorities than being the paint police, and there should be a higher level of service by senior staff, so I stood for council.”
Bronwyn notes that it is unusual to have so many female Mayors elected, and that when she was first voted onto council in 2016, she was the only female.
“Our current Council has two women – myself, and Councillor Kim Rhodes, and our Council staff has a higher proportion of females in the indoor staff,” she says.
“However, we have ladies in our outdoor team and in managerial roles, and in our community, women often hold senior roles in business organisations. I think that demonstrates that in our shire the majority of the men are supportive of women taking on those positions,” she adds.
“I am a strong advocate of merit appointments, not meeting arbitrary targets, as I would hate to see an excellent female being passed over for a male with lesser skills and vice versa.
“I’ve always worked in male-dominated industries and there are great male role models. Bad behaviour from either gender needs to be called out.”
Bronwyn says that the first priorities for Council are financial sustainability, completing roadworks for approved claims, and getting the road maintenance schedule back on track.
“We will also be progressing the use of our town dam for recreation, setting up the ongoing operations of our School of Arts complex, sourcing funds for improvement to essential services, as well our swimming pool and heritage building refurbishments,” she says.
“Advocacy will also continue for improved funding to rural councils and reduction of government cost shifting.”
As anyone who has worked on Council will attest, there is always a tonne of work and commitments to juggle, and it takes a strong person to tackle the big issues create change, but Bronwyn is ready to shake things up, and her community will always come first.
“My grounding philosophy is based on honesty, integrity and accountability along with caring for our community and consideration of the consequences of our decisions,” she says.
“I will know if we are successful if we have a sustainable council providing the vital services that the community requires in a cost effective, efficient manner, while providing as many ‘nice-to-haves’ as possible for the liveability of the shire.”
Read all the way through to the end of the story? So did lots of other people. Advertise with New England Times to reach New England locals who are interested and engaged. Find out more here.