Company: City of Darwin
IPA Status: AIPA
Location: Darwin, NT
Darwin has always been seen as the ‘gateway to Asia’. The Chinese community in this Northern Territory capital dates back to the late 1870s, when migrants first settled during the gold rush era.
One Chinese migrant family has embraced the city with particular devotion. Katrina Fong Lim, born in Darwin, is the first Asian–Australian female to be voted in as lord mayor for any Australian capital.
But she’s not the first Fong Lim to be lord mayor of Darwin; that accolade went to her late father Alec, who held the office in the 1980s. You might say the mayoralty is becoming a family business.
Spurred into action
Fong Lim is not a party-political animal. Her 2012 election win, with 56.6 per cent of the primary vote, was driven by her past and present commitment to the city. Before entering local government, she had held a string of community-centred jobs. As executive director of the Australia Day Council in the Northern Territory, she also trod in her father’s footsteps; he had been the council’s inaugural chairman.
But Fong Lim’s move into local government wasn’t pre-ordained. She holds a master’s of professional accounting and has a business degree majoring in human resources management and marketing. Before her election, she ran a sideline business delivering financial management training to local builders, through Master Builders Northern Territory.
So what precipitated Fong Lim’s decision to stand for mayor? “My husband and I were watching TV, and I was frustrated about something on the news that the council had done,” she says. “Tony turned to me and said: ‘You could do that [be mayor]’.” It planted a seed that soon became serious intent.
The financial pulse
Without her financial training, Fong Lim doubts that she would have been a credible candidate. “The master’s has helped me enormously, because it gave me that grounding in governance issues and taught me how to read a financial paper properly,” she says, adding that accountants are beautifully placed to engage with the community, “because every single committee needs a treasurer”.
Together with 12 aldermen, Fong Lim is responsible for $1.2 billion worth of Darwin’s assets and marshals an operational budget of around $96 million, with dense digital paperwork to match.
“An accountancy training means I can look at programs and budgets and analyse what trend that is addressing, who it is going to benefit, what our capacity is to affect the community and what outcomes may result,” she says.
It’s a far cry from the teenage schoolgirl who graduated from Darwin High School unsure about her future. Instead of going to university, Fong Lim joined the Commonwealth public service where, over 13 years, she moved through a variety of departments, including Finance, Community Services and Social Security.
Spending the rest of her time volunteering and with a growing impulse for community service, she moved into the not-for-profit sector, taking executive roles at the YWCA, Crafts Council and finally as executive director of the Australia Day Council – a grand title, she says, for a one-person organisation that relies on volunteers.
Taking the lead
Motivating others is a skill that came into its own during her election campaign, with more than 100 people volunteering their time and support for her. Reflecting on the experience, Fong Lim says it was hard work but enjoyable. “I lost 10 kilos, which was great,” she laughs. Her tactics included issuing media releases each week, prominent car magnets and door-to-door meetings.
But her secret weapon appears to be her family. Fong Lim is the fourth of six daughters, all but one Darwin residents, who are very close to their 85-year-old mother. “The easiest way to get elected,” she jokes, “is to take your family and put them in bright green T-shirts with your face on it and get them to run around town.”
Fong Lim puts her success down to being not just a good listener but also having the ability to really understand an alternative point of view – important qualities for a leader, she believes.
Since being elected, she’s also learned that you can’t please everyone all of the time. When it was announced that she was to visit the Alaskan city of Anchorage (sister city to Darwin) to celebrate 30 years of friendship, she came under fire for going on a junket. “I realised that I was going for the right reasons [and] I worked very hard and paid for myself,” she says. “All I can do is remain true to my ethics and follow my moral compass.”
As Darwin positions itself for the 21st century – it is the secondfastest- growing capital city in Australia, in terms of population – the lord mayor must respond to pressure on resources. For instance, she is campaigning to get more people to walk around the city, and “the policy wouldn’t work if I drove my car everywhere, so I try to make sure I do the same”.
Fong Lim talks affectionately about Darwin as a harmonious, multi-cultural community. “We want the newcomers to appreciate what we have here and add to it,” she says. Just as Katrina Fong Lim herself has done.
