Following the suspension of Josh Gilligan, Wyndham’s mayoral selection process will go to the council chamber — along with the familiar arithmetic of numbers, alliances and ambition.
Cr Gilligan was suspended for one month after an independent misconduct finding over a Facebook post directed at former Wyndham mayor Kim McAliney.
The finding was tabled at a council meeting on 24 February 2026 and, under the Local Government Act 2020, the suspension took effect from 25 February 2026, stripping the mayor of the chair and triggering the need for council to choose a replacement.
The process was initiated by Cr Robert Szatkowski, who sought internal arbitration after Cr Gilligan described Ms McAliney as a “raging lunatic”.
He also accused her of “sprouting anti-government propaganda you usually see from the sovereign citizen movement” — language the arbiter found breached councillor conduct standards.
In his determination, arbiter Simon Heath rejected arguments that the post should be treated as mere personal opinion, finding it was plainly made in Cr Gilligan’s capacity as a councillor and therefore bound by the code.
The post, while later removed, remained publicly visible for several days — long enough to cause significant fallout across the council and the greater community.
With the mayor suspended, Deputy Mayor Preet Singh has stepped in as Acting Mayor for the duration — but only as a bridge until councillors elect a new mayor.
The bigger decision now sits with the remaining councillors, who must elect a new mayor to steer the municipality through the next stretch of a term already defined by internal conflict and public scrutiny.
And this is where the numbers start to bite.
Because Cr Gilligan is not just barred from the chair — he’s also unable to vote while suspended. That leaves 10 councillors in play, meaning any candidate needs a clear majority of six votes to take the chains.
In a chamber where blocs have formed and fractured repeatedly, six is not a casual threshold. It demands discipline, negotiation, and — in the way Wyndham does politics — sometimes a deal that looks unlikely right up until the moment the votes are counted.
The coming mayoral vote will be less a coronation than a test of whether Wyndham’s rival camps can hold their lines, or whether the vacuum created by the suspension forces a reshuffle
Some councillors will be weighing stability: a leader who can calm proceedings, keep meetings functional, and front the city without drama.
Others may see opportunity: a chance to take control of the agenda, reward loyalists, or sideline opponents — all while the public watches closely for signs council has learned anything from its recent controversies.
Timing only sharpens the stakes. 2026 is already shaping up as a politically charged year across Victoria, and local government rarely escapes the gravitational pull of a major state election cycle.
Whoever takes the chair won’t just be managing governance and community expectations; they’ll also be managing Wyndham’s image — and the council’s credibility — at a moment when every misstep lands harder.
For now, the mayor’s robes are effectively on loan. The real contest begins when councillors decide, in a room where relationships are counted as carefully as votes
