A look to Postcode 3000: Jamal Hakim announces Esther Anatolitis as deputy

Lord Mayoral hopeful Jamal Hakim has revealed his running mate for Town Hall as renowned writer and CBD resident Esther Anatolitis, who has stressed the importance of “Postcode 3000” in shaping the area’s future.

A “democratic, welcoming and flourishing city” is the vision current Cr Jamal Hakim is striving for after announcing his candidacy for Lord Mayor on August 2 ahead of October’s City of Melbourne elections.

Celebrating the city’s diversity is at the heart of the former Midsumma Festival board member’s campaign for Town Hall, and he has pledged that Team Hakim would “shape a future for Melbourne that prioritises people, not politics”.

It’s a narrative that strongly resonates with Esther Anatolitis, who is considered one of Australia’s most influential advocates for arts, media and urban planning, and has joined Team Hakim as its candidate for Deputy Lord Mayor.

A long-time contributor to the Greek community, if elected, Ms Anatolitis will make history as the first Greek-Australian Deputy Lord Mayor of the largest Hellenic city outside of Greece.

Neos Kosmos, for which she has also written, featured Ms Anatolitis among the 50 most prominent Greek Australians of the time in its 50th anniversary magazine, and when one glances at her CV, it’s easy to understand why …

Ms Anatolitis’s leadership career in arts, media and urban planning began in ethnic broadcasting when she ran the National Ethnic and Multicultural Broadcasters Council, and later worked at SBS Radio Melbourne.

Within the City of Melbourne, she has been CEO of Express Media, the Emerging Writers Festival (of which she was a founder), Craft Victoria, SYN Media 90.7FM, Regional Arts Victoria, and Melbourne Fringe.

She has been an AFR 100 Women of Influence finalist and has worked on cultural precincts and master planning all over Australia, and was inaugural deputy chair of Contemporary Arts Precincts, the social enterprise behind Collingwood Yards.

Ms Anatolitis has also worked with local governments, including the City of Melbourne, on arts precinct and urban planning projects, and is a prolific writer, commentator and editor who has written several books.

She has served numerous government policy committees and arts boards, including ACMI, Regional Arts Australia, and the Arts Industry Council of Victoria, and is currently a member of the governing council of the National Gallery of Australia, co-chair of the Australian Republic Movement, and an associate professor at RMIT School of Art.

As a “passionate advocate of Australian multiculturalism” who speaks several languages, she has advised both the Hellenic Museum and the Greek Orthodox Community of Melbourne and Victoria, where she has served the board of the Antipodes Festival.

She is also a proud member of Melbourne’s queer and disability communities, living with a rare brain condition similar to epilepsy on the migraine spectrum.

With many others having approached Ms Anatolitis to run for the City of Melbourne in the past, Cr Hakim said he was thrilled she had accepted to join his team as someone who “understands quintessential Melbourne”.

Ms Anatolitis told CBD News that Team Hakim’s message for a democratic, welcoming and flourishing city was something she wanted to be part of.

“I’m someone who lives, works and loves Melbourne. I’ve been here for more than 20 years, and I am no stranger to representative governance,” Ms Anatolitis said.

The evolution of any city is kind of beautifully cyclical and that cycle grows and expands. Melbourne’s success is very much grounded on its multiculturism.

And it’s that very foundation that Ms Anatolitis said she hoped to build upon if elected through a new machination of the council’s highly successful Postcode 3000 policies of the 1990s.

“I would love to empower the council team to come up with ‘what is the future of Postcode 3000?’ It was an incredibly successful, impactful strategy from 20 years ago after the ‘90s recession,” she said.

“I love the strategic, innovative work that was done years ago such that we’ve now got a Melbourne with a beautiful urban forest, those laneways and small businesses and small galleries and so on, which are renowned internationally.”

“What is the future of postcode 3000? And we’re not just talking about residential in the next chapter – it’s got to be about how can we support artists, creative and community organisations to afford to do their important work within the municipality.”

“To use the old ‘placemaking’ term, I genuinely feel part of a city village and my neighbours are the people who actively want to keep making Melbourne a city village. It’s a city of many, many villages and I love that, and I’m so committed to strengthening that.” •