Robbie Williams’ key to the city award prompts rule overhaul at City of Melbourne

7 hours ago 2

British pop star Robbie Williams being gifted the key to the city has caused an overhaul of City of Melbourne rules about who can receive the honour.

Williams was presented with the key to the city by Lord Mayor Nick Reece at a free surprise public concert at Federation Square on January 2 before an estimated crowd of 10,000.

Robbie Williams in Melbourne in January. The singer was awarded a key to the city and staged a free concert to promote his biopic.

However, the decision to give Williams the honour came under scrutiny after it was revealed Reece and council chief executive Alison Leighton made the decision alone, and the other councillors only found out the day before the public ceremony.

Councillors demanded a review of the City of Melbourne’s processes after Roadshow Films, a fully owned subsidiary of Village Roadshow and the distributor of the Williams biopic Better Man, requested the singer receive the key to the city.

John Kirby, one of the owners of Village Roadshow, donated $10,000 to Reece’s election campaign.

Under the City of Melbourne’s new civic recognition procedures, a key to the city can only be awarded to someone after a briefing and resolution passed by council.

More stringent rules will also apply to the awards of honorary freeperson (individuals who have made exceptional contributions to the community) and a parade of public celebration.

Councillor Philip Le Liu told Monday night’s council meeting that the award of the key to the city to Williams had prompted the rule overhaul.

“There was a lot of issues with the process, conflict of interest, and ... approvals that I was seeking of who actually made decision wasn’t available,” he said.

“Something so tremendous and valuable to the City of Melbourne should be not only made in secret, and not only should be made by a few, but it should be actually made by those who are elected.”

Lord Mayor Nick Reece congratulates Robbie Williams in January after the singer was awarded the key to the city.

Le Liu said decisions of this significance should not be made by Reece and Leighton alone.

“It should be a decision of council so that we have transparency,” he said.

Being given a key to the city is a rare honour, with only 40 awarded in Melbourne’s history. Past recipients include Australian icon Olivia Newton-John, philanthropist Dame Elisabeth Murdoch, boxing legend Muhammad Ali and US country singer Dolly Parton.

Williams was the first person in seven years awarded the honour.

Reece said he supported the motion and thanked Le Liu for ensuring more robust processes were put in place.

“The general rule that council will be going forward with is that the more meaningful, symbolic and rare the award, the more robust and considered the decision-making process should be,” Reece said at the meeting on Monday night.

“We do want to ensure that when council does make the decision to give somebody an award, that the community can know that there’s been a robust process behind it.”

Reece said this was good governance and something that he strongly supported.

“I’m excited to explore more use of civic recognition awards over this council term,” he said. “When Robbie Williams was awarded the keys to the city earlier this year, it was a truly magic moment for this city.”

Councillor Gladys Liu attempted to move an amendment remove the LGBTIQA+ award from the council’s Melbourne Awards on the basis that “the awards should be based on the contributions, the quality of the person, and it should not be based on sexuality”.

Her amendment was supported by councillor Owen Guest but rejected by all other councillors.

Councillor Davydd Griffiths said Liu’s proposed amendment was horrible and warned it risked “unlocking the culture wars here at Town Hall”.

The council meeting also considered the City of Melbourne’s draft budget and agreed to provide $4.5 million of increased funding for bike lanes after the council received more than 1450 submissions from angry cyclists who said Reece had breached his election promise to maintain funding for cycling infrastructure.

Reece said the updated four-year investment meant that the total put in by the city to cycling infrastructure was in line with the council’s previous term.

“We’ve heard loud and clear about the importance of cycling safety, with close to 11 deaths on Melbourne roads from cycling accidents,” Reece said.

“So whether that is protected bike lanes, green bike lanes, better lighting at intersections, there is a whole range of interventions that are there that can improve cyclist safety and ensure that all users of our transport system feel safe.”

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