By Alesha Capone
Wyndham councillor Mia Shaw has been elected mayor for the next 12 months.
Cr Shaw, a representative of the Iramoo ward, was elected unopposed at a council meeting last night. Cr John Gibbons was elected as deputy mayor.
Cr Shaw’s election continues a family tradition – her great-grandfather William Shaw served as Werribee’s shire president on three occasions between 1917 and 1946.
After being sworn in, Cr Shaw said it was “a great honour and privilege” to be elected as mayor.
“I ran for council in 2016 because I wanted to make a difference in the area I grew up in,” she said.
She said she was keen to work collectively with the other councillors and council staff to focus on priorities for the municipality over the next 12 months.
Cr Shaw said that before the recent state election the Labor party had made a number of commitments to fund various projects in the Wyndham area and she intended to continue to advocate for Wyndham.
“Whilst we did get a lot of things, the work continues … we’re still growing and people still need things, and we didn’t get everything we wanted,” she said.
“We still know there are lots of things we need, around schools, around infrastructure, around a lot of services.”
Cr Shaw also thanked her parents and six-year-old son Gus for helping her to “keep it real”.
Cr Shaw is the sixth female mayor of the city.
Wyndham’s outgoing mayor, Cr Peter Maynard, congratulated Cr Shaw on taking on the role and described her as a “tireless worker”.
