By AIDAN KNIGHT

 

LATROBE City currently seats the youngest representative in the council’s history, in the 30-year-old Steph Morgan.

The Yallourn Ward Councillor, who has been living in the area for five years, has capped off her first year in local government with a nomination for the prestigious Mary Rogers Award, celebrating female leaders across Victoria.

Cr Morgan was recognised as one of the most promising faces for the state’s ‘Emerging Woman Leader’ category, which can only be given to first term councillors such as herself.

The awards are named after the first woman elected to local council, 105 years ago, in the Richmond City byelection, and the second female councillor in the country.

The award Cr Morgan was nominated for ultimately went to Katharine Nikolic of Brimbank City Council, an area served by a rural paper printed by the Express here in Morwell.

Attending the ceremony at Parliament House, Cr Morgan described the experience as “really special” and was quick to praise the calibre of women in attendance.

“Just being nominated, I was like, ‘wow, I don’t think I could have dealt with winning’. That would have just been like, I would have been sobbing,” she admitted with a laugh.

“But another young woman councillor won, and I was just over the moon.”

Cr Morgan sees her nomination as both a personal honour and a cause for celebration for all women in local government.

“There was one award for councils doing a lot of work for gender equity and gender equality. And the Mary Rogers award itself … especially for the two for individual women, phenomenal women, just amazing women were nominated,” she said.

“It was very special, I think, to be in Queen’s Hall, surrounded by excellent people, which was just really lovely.

“I would love for someone to beat me to be the youngest councillor, or the youngest female councillor,” she says, of what she views as gaping holes in the demographics represented in local government.

Cr Morgan emphasised her initial thoughts that you had to be “a retiree” to represent a ward, and hopes her achievement in securing her seat by nine votes encourages others to step forward to the task, anywhere in Victoria.

“I feel like a 30-year-old shouldn’t be the youngest,” she said.

Cr Morgan is convinced that lasting progress depends on engaging more young people and fostering authenticity in council decisions.

“We struggle so much with engaging young people in all of our engagement surveys … it’s so disappointing because, not because young people aren’t engaging, but because we aren’t reaching them. If we don’t know what they or their caregivers want and need, then we’re missing the mark,” she said.

“The more people who represent the entire community, from the oldest to the youngest to the most marginalised, the stronger our democracy.”

And while Cr Morgan’s first year has earned her statewide recognition, it didn’t end with a clean sweep.

On November 28 , the same day she travelled to Parliament House for the awards, she also ran for both Mayor and Deputy Mayor back in Morwell, ultimately unsuccessful in both bids.

It was a twist likely not lost on those in the chamber, especially after Cr Morgan quoted Star Wars in a recent meeting.

So for now, she holds a seat on the council – but the rank of master will have to wait.