On Wednesday, Cr Kristy McBain was elected as mayor and Cr Liz Seckold returned as deputy. Both will bring years of local government experience to their roles. 

The Bega Valley Shire Council now has an all-female leadership team. 

Excitingly, as far as the Bega District News is aware, this is the first time there has been such a combination. The duo are also complimented by four other women on council. 

The result has come after the Bega District News received several Letters to the Editor calling for long-time councillor Tony Allen to be elected to mayor, citing the fact he received the highest percentage of votes in the recent election.

He was also the only candidate of 26 to make quota on first preferences. 

But while Cobargo’s Cr Allen evidently has major support across the Bega Valley, we cannot assume how residents would vote if asked to choose who would make the best mayor out of the nine elected councillors.

A public vote on the matter would of course be the best way to learn the community’s views, but there would be additional costs involved in such a procedure. 

Since the local government election, there have already been a couple of surprising moments. 

On Monday, many councillors remained tight-lipped during their induction when asked who would be putting their hand up for the role of mayor.

Only Councillors Robyn Bain and Cathy Griff confirmed they would not be running.

Considering a major issue shire residents had with the last council was that there was a perceived lack of transparency and consultation, it was interesting to see that in one of the new councillors’ first decisions the majority chose to remain silent over whether or not they were standing for mayor. 

This was preceded by former Mayor Michael Britten – who was not re-elected - releasing a Letter to the Editor partly blaming the result of the election on “a political campaign by Tony Allen’s group of eight misinforming the public on council’s finances and building purchases”. 

“There is and has been a significant cost to everyone, including myself, in putting out misinformation bushfires,” he said. 

So the new term of council is already off to an exciting start; let’s see where things go from here.