For 27 minutes in 2013 Rhys Williams was Mandurah’s mayor.
In a historic count that went down to the wire, the young entrepreneur lost his short-lived reign following a recount which saw Marina Vergone pip him at the post and take the city’s top job.
It was an agonisingly close call after a hard-fought campaign by both contenders.
Now Mr Williams says he’s up for another challenge.
And this time he wants the win more than ever.
“Mandurah, with all of its potential and all of its opportunity, is stuck,” Mr Williams said.
“We need to build a sense of community pride.
“This is the crux of it.”
Having hardly been idle over the past four years, the 29-year-old brushed himself off after the 2013 election and set up Make Place – a hub for young entrepreneurs and leaders to collaborate.
He was the brains behind Smart Street Parties and local WA Day activities, and has worked on expanding the leadership programs run through Make Place.
In 2015 Mr Williams won the Western Australian Young Person of the Year Award.
He said his vision for Mandurah was largely influenced by what he saw as people’s lack of belief in themselves, and in the city.
I get sad when I walk around and I see people hanging their head down.
- Rhys Williams.
“I get sad when I walk around and I see people hanging their head down,” he said.
“I think we need a really transformative approach.
“How do we build that ambitious culture? How do we build that aspirational thinking?”
Mr Williams said Mandurah couldn’t keep operating under “business as usual” terms, and to do so would see the city end up as an “irrelevant suburb of Perth, with all of the social dysfunction that comes with that”.
“I want to be of that new story,” he said.
“I want to be part of putting those foundations in now, so that in 20 years time Mandurah nails it in terms of being a city of significance, with an identity and culture and a sense of hope.”
Mr Williams referred to current Joondalup and Fremantle mayors Troy Pickard and Brad Pettit, and former Mandurah mayor Paddi Creevey as inspirational leaders who work collaboratively to “really drive a vision”.
He referred to a current leadership “bubble” in Mandurah that made decisions and “assumptions about what’s important to people”.
“The leaders I admire actually break out of that bubble and they go and talk to people and they knock on doors and engage with people to try and find out what matters to them,” he said.
“There’s a whole lot of people – thousands in fact in this community – who don’t get to have a say about what’s important to them on an ongoing basis.
“If you’re going to ask someone to do something as serious as vote for you, then you should take the time to go out and find out what matters to them.
“If you don’t – why should you ask for that vote in return?”
