A message to Docklands from the Lord Mayor

Pre-COVID, Docklands was really starting to come into its own with more than 70,000 jobs in the area recorded in a 2019 census conducted by the City of Melbourne. 

The number of jobs in Docklands had more than doubled in a decade. Major developments were being planned, approved and proceeding at a rapid rate. Job creation and commercial activity were on the up.

However, COVID has hit Docklands particularly hard with almost half of shopfronts empty or closed due to the pandemic. 

A huge amount of work and effort is going to be required to bring Docklands back better than before. As a proud Docklands resident, I am totally committed to working with local businesses and residents to drive the economic recovery of Docklands.

In the post-COVID environment, we need to fight for every dollar coming into our city.

One of the biggest challenges is that we now need to create economic growth instead of simply managing it.

This mindset change will need to be reflected at all levels of the City of Melbourne. 

I’ve said it before, we need to become a city of yes!

One example of this mindset change in action is the rapid rollout of the COVID support grants and extended outdoor dining program.

Now that the workplace caps have risen to 75 per cent, we look forward to welcoming more workers back to their Docklands offices. However, we also need to expand our horizons and aim to attract new jobs and industries into our city.

This means supporting start-ups and innovation, and pitching our city to become the base of new headquarters for national and international companies. 

My priorities for this council term are driving our economic recovery, delivering infrastructure projects on time and on budget, getting the basics right, sustainability and making our city more equitable.  

All councillors at the City of Melbourne are committed to delivering on our commitments to the community and we know the immense challenges ahead of us. 

Despite the difficulties ahead, we do feel optimistic about the future of our city because we all know how Melburnians rally together during tough times •