About

May­or Matt Paterson

Phone: 0424 652 640

Email: mpaterson@​alicesprings.​nt.​gov.​au 

Qual­i­fied as an elec­tri­cian, May­or Pater­son has an exten­sive his­to­ry of work­ing in var­i­ous com­mu­ni­ties in Cen­tral Aus­tralia. This has giv­en him an inti­mate knowl­edge of the community.

May­or Pater­son is a pas­sion­ate sportsper­son and local sport­ing leader. He has served as a Crick­et Aus­tralia Com­mu­ni­ty Ambas­sador, com­mit­tee mem­ber of the Alice Springs Turf Club and a long-time pres­i­dent of a local crick­et club. Out­side of sport, he is also heav­i­ly involved in many com­mu­ni­ty events and will often be spot­ted speak­ing with mem­bers of the community.

May­or Pater­son is pas­sion­ate about pro­vid­ing oppor­tu­ni­ties for the town’s young peo­ple to grow and pros­per, as well as con­nect­ing mean­ing­ful­ly with the senior com­mu­ni­ty of Alice Springs.

Deputy May­or Eli Melky

Phone: 0427 012 699

Email: emelky@​alicesprings.​nt.​gov.​au

Deputy May­or Eli Melky has always put the com­mu­ni­ty of Alice Springs first, as evi­denced by his long serv­ing com­mit­ment to Council. 

DM Melky has served as part of the 11^th, 12^th, 13^th and now 14^th Alice Springs Town Coun­cils, hav­ing spent more than 10 years in the Cham­ber fight­ing for a bet­ter Alice Springs. 

Tak­ing a proac­tive approach, DM Melky is pas­sion­ate about address­ing law and order con­cerns in the Red Cen­tre. As well as want­i­ng a safe and tidy town, he sup­ports busi­ness and tourism growth ini­tia­tives and many oth­er sport­ing and spe­cial events in our town.

His years of expe­ri­ence as a Coun­cil­lor, cou­pled with a wealth of knowl­edge of the Alice Springs busi­ness com­mu­ni­ty, gives DM Melky a unique per­spec­tive and he main­tains the hunger to con­tin­ue advo­cat­ing for Alice Springs.

Coun­cil­lor Mar­li Banks

Phone: 0417 681 111

Email: mbanks@​alicesprings.​nt.​gov.​au

Hav­ing called Alice Springs home since 2001, Coun­cil­lor Mar­li Banks believes in mak­ing Alice Springs more safe, diverse, and pros­per­ous, through col­lab­o­ra­tion and pub­lic engagement.

With 8 years of expe­ri­ence in retail, Coun­cil­lor Banks is the Man­ag­ing Direc­tor of Afghan Traders Whole­foods. A self-made entre­pre­neur, she holds skills and expe­ri­ence in finance, mar­ket­ing, oper­a­tions man­age­ment, and busi­ness planning.

Active in a cross-sec­tion of com­mu­ni­ty life, Coun­cil­lor Banks is a mem­ber of the Region­al Eco­nom­ic Devel­op­ment Com­mit­tee, a Gov­ern­ing Board mem­ber, and a Finance Sub­com­mit­tee mem­ber for a local school.

A moth­er of two, Coun­cil­lor Banks spends all her spare time with her chil­dren. She has a love of arts, cul­ture, food and trav­el, and enjoys the outdoors.

Coun­cil­lor Alli­son Bitar

Phone: 0491 055 224

Email: abitar@​alicesprings.​nt.​gov.​au

A self-made entre­pre­neur, Coun­cil­lor Alli­son Bitar has been a fan­tas­tic role mod­el for young Cen­tralians since mov­ing to the region in 2002. 

Along with her hus­band, Coun­cil­lor Bitar is a proud local busi­ness own­er and will bring a strong busi­ness mind to the Coun­cil Chamber. 

Coun­cil­lor Bitar also has valu­able expe­ri­ence work­ing in cul­tur­al her­itage man­age­ment, pol­i­cy design and town plan­ning, as well as a Batch­e­lor of Social Sci­ence (Hons Anthro­pol­o­gy) and a Grad­u­ate Diplo­ma of Urban and Region­al Town Plan­ning. Coun­cil­lor Bitar has been a mem­ber of the NT Her­itage Coun­cil. This will assist her in bring­ing a nuanced approach to a range of issues to the 14^th Alice Springs Town Council.

Coun­cil­lor Bitar is a strong believ­er in work­ing togeth­er with peo­ple from all walks of life for the good of the com­mu­ni­ty and will work hard to make Alice Springs a place peo­ple want to move to and stay. 

Coun­cil­lor Steve Brown

Phone: 0427 792 194

Email: sbrown@​alicesprings.​nt.​gov.​au

Born and bred in Alice Springs, Coun­cil­lor Steve Brown is tru­ly invest­ed in see­ing his home town prosper. 

A Coun­cil­lor on the 12^th Alice Springs Town Coun­cil, Coun­cil­lor Brown has again thrown his hat in the ring to serve his community. 

Coun­cil­lor Brown is an elec­tri­cian by trade and has valu­able expe­ri­ence both on the tools and work­ing with all lev­els of gov­ern­ment. He is pas­sion­ate about law and order in Alice Springs and will bring his expe­ri­ence and nous to the 14^th Alice Springs Town Council. 

Coun­cil­lor Jim­my Cocking

Phone: 0423 511 931

Email: jcocking@​alicesprings.​nt.​gov.​au

Coun­cil­lor Cock­ing has been a res­i­dent of Alice Springs since 2008 and is a strong advo­cate on envi­ron­men­tal and social mat­ters, par­tic­u­lar­ly in his pre­vi­ous capac­i­ty as the Chief Exec­u­tive Offi­cer of the Arid Lands Envi­ron­ment Centre.

He has a strong back­ground in sci­ence and pub­lic pol­i­cy, hav­ing com­plet­ed a Bach­e­lor Sci­ence (Bio­med­ical) at Monash Uni­ver­si­ty and Mas­ters in Social Sci­ence (Inter­na­tion­al Urban and Envi­ron­men­tal Man­age­ment) at RMIT Uni­ver­si­ty with a keen focus on region­al plan­ning and sus­tain­able development. 

He is a found­ing co-Direc­tor of Wide Open Space Fes­ti­val and has served as a Board mem­ber on a wide range of organ­i­sa­tions and com­mu­ni­ty groups. He reg­u­lar­ly vol­un­teers to sup­port local events and causes. 

Out­side of pro­fes­sion­al life, Coun­cil­lor Cock­ing enjoys fam­i­ly time, gar­den­ing, bush walk­ing, read­ing, and keep­ing up on local and glob­al affairs.

Coun­cil­lor Mark Coffey

Phone: 0401 116 166

Email: mcoffey@​alicesprings.​nt.​gov.​au

Hav­ing spent con­sid­er­able time across a vari­ety of indus­tries in the Red Cen­tre, Coun­cil­lor Cof­fey brings a wealth of expe­ri­ence to the Chamber. 

Coun­cil­lor Cof­fey spent 22 years as part of the North­ern Ter­ri­to­ry Police Force and a fur­ther 12 years as a Senior Exec­u­tive in the Aus­tralian Gov­ern­ment. Nev­er one to put him­self first, Coun­cil­lor Cof­fey has also vol­un­teered his time to a range of com­mu­ni­ty organ­i­sa­tions in Alice Springs.

Coun­cil­lor Cof­fey has lent his exper­tise as a board mem­ber of CASA Ser­vices, Parole Board, St John Ambu­lance NT, Health and Com­mu­ni­ty Ser­vices Com­plaints Review Com­mit­tee, and is the Chair of the Con­nel­lan Air­ways Trust. 

When he has an occa­sion­al spare minute. Coun­cil­lor Cof­fey enjoys his sport, camp­ing and loves a good bush walk.

Coun­cil­lor Kim Hopper

Phone: 0423 397 235

Email: khopper@​alicesprings.​nt.​gov.​au

Coun­cil­lor Hop­per has been an active mem­ber of Alice Springs for 12 years. She has a back­ground in youth work, cri­sis accom­mo­da­tion and project management. 

Hav­ing been on Boards at a state and Nation­al lev­el and now run­ning a small busi­ness, Cr Hop­per brings knowl­edge of gov­er­nance, man­age­ment and com­mu­ni­ty devel­op­ment to her role at Council. 

Cr Hop­per has been a strong sup­port­er of our local per­form­ing arts and through her busi­ness sup­ports local not-for-prof­its such as ALEC, Watch This Space, and the Com­mu­ni­ty Garden. 

Cr Hop­per and her part­ner are now bring­ing up their young fam­i­ly here and are com­mit­ted to mak­ing Alice Springs a thriv­ing com­mu­ni­ty into the future. 

Coun­cil­lor Michael Liddle

Phone: 0456 529 769

Email: mliddle@​alicesprings.​nt.​gov.​au

Spend­ing his whole life in Alice Springs, there are few peo­ple more in tune with the Alice Springs com­mu­ni­ty than Coun­cil­lor Michael Liddle. 

Born and raised in Cen­tral Aus­tralia, Coun­cil­lor Lid­dle becomes part of the 14^th Alice Springs Town Coun­cil with a wealth of knowl­edge across var­i­ous sectors. 

A strong advo­cate for men­tal health and well­be­ing, in par­tic­u­lar in Indige­nous men, Coun­cil­lor Lid­dle has spent the past eight years work­ing for Desert Knowl­edge Aus­tralia in var­i­ous roles. 

His ded­i­ca­tion to build­ing strong com­mu­ni­ties in Cen­tral Aus­tralia led him to nom­i­nat­ing for Coun­cil and will work hard for the bet­ter­ment of Alice Springs. 

Reg­u­la­tion 11 (3)

Coun­cil is required under Reg­u­la­tion 11 (3) of the Local Gov­ern­ment (Admin­is­tra­tion) Reg­u­la­tions to keep a reg­is­ter of the results of all elec­tions and polls. In com­pli­ance with this require­ment, recent elec­tion results doc­u­ments can be found here.

For fur­ther infor­ma­tion please fol­low the link to the North­ern Ter­ri­to­ry Elec­toral Com­mis­sion web­site, here.