By Rod Mitchell

As the Council elections draw near, it would be remiss not to mention one candidate standing for the St Kilda Ward – Councillor Robbie Nyaguy.

Councillor Nyaguy came into the City of Port Phillip by way of casual vacancy when the former Lake Ward Councillor, Katherine Copsey, was elected to the Victorian Parliament. In his affirmation in office speech in 2023, we were left in the dark what he stood for except that: 

“As a gay 31-year-old, I sometimes cruise, I sometimes drink too much and dirty dance, and I sometimes send nudes on Grindr. These things are part of my queer life and my private life, but they are not a secret life.” 

That’s all well and good, but for many of us who are not concerned about sexuality or wear it like a badge, do however, care about policies and approaches to dealing with issues in the City of Port Phillip. The affirmation speech came across as vacuous and leaving us none the wiser. Since then, he has had a very interesting one-and-a-half-year career in Council that should be examined more closely, as his views and policy positions have firmed up decidedly in my view in the far-left space, not the sensible centre.

We know that he is standing for the St Kilda Ward at this election and yet does not live in this ward. His record is one of a strong advocate of rate increases but does not pay rates himself. 

We know he recently defamed fellow Councillors and through an arbitration process, was made to apologise in Council Chambers to the Councillors he defamed. 

We know he left straight after that apology, saying that Council Chambers was “toxic”, yet a few weeks later the toxicity in Council must have moderated, because he returned back to Council duties. Was this done out of real fear?

Recently he slept on the lawns of the CoPP offices for three nights as a means of highlighting the homelessness in the CoPP. Many might see this as just a pre-election stunt, but let’s again, give him the benefit of the doubt.

The recent motion to Council was an eye opener, as he once again tried to push a radical and expensive housing agenda on the City of Port Phillip, that was no more than a repeat of a similar budget time motion put by him a few months back, which was also defeated.

The motion proposed for more ratepayer money to be spent on social housing supporting a declaration by the CoPP, of a “housing emergency”. He also sought within the motion, a redefinition of the core role of Council “in both the supply of housing and provision of affordable housing.”

Councillor Nyaguy should stay with in his “bike lane”. Councils do not have a mandated role to provide housing. That is the responsibility of Federal and State governments.

Further “initiatives” by the Councillor included rate payer funding of:

Also included in the motion, was “encouragement of densification” and “increasing supply of housing in heritage overlays”. 

Is that what anyone in the City of Port Phillip from Port Melbourne to St Kilda, really wants – more ugly built contemporary shoe boxes in heritage areas like those in former eastern bloc countries? No thank you!

One might see this as pre-election posturing, but more importantly is the question, who would pay for these initiatives if enacted?    

The answer is nicely wrapped in the new class warfare mentality of renter’s vs owner occupiers and investors. A falsely premised view that, if you own a house or an investment property, you can afford to pay more, irrespective of higher interest rates, land tax, mandated gas and electricity inspections, and an already higher rates regime than neighbouring councils. 

Councillor Nyaguy needs a spell out of Council, maybe a job in the private sector to get some grounding in basic economics. Whatever lies instore for him, he certainly should not be voted back onto Council, until he leaves his current mindset behind.