When Molly Kendall and Harry Quick attended their first council meeting after being elected at the 2022 election, they both declared their desire to be referred to as “Councillor” rather than “Alderman”.

According to the 1993 Local Government Act: “A person elected to a city council is a councillor but may be known as an alderman.”

Although Kendall and Quick were within their rights to ask to be called “Councillor”, it did trigger considerable discussion among those we now quaintly refer to as “elected members”.

Some were quite passionate about wanting to be called “Alderman”. Some didn’t seem to care. I still don’t understand why some took the subject so seriously, probably because I’m a newcomer to Glenorchy having lived here for only 40 years. I was curious.

A little background.

City status was granted to Glenorchy on October 24, 1964, exactly one hundred years after it was first proclaimed a municipality (the third city proclaimed in Tasmania).

The definitive list of Tasmanian councils appears in Schedule 3B of the Local Government Act and currently contains

• Burnie City
• Clarence City
• Devonport City
• Glenorchy City
• Hobart City
• Launceston City

Clarence is an outlier because you will not find “Clarence” on any map I’ve seen.

And you’ll find that Hobart Council has special status in various situations.

Here are the criteria that must be satisfied by a “city” in Tasmania. The Board referred to is the Local Government Board.

38.   Criteria for city status
For the purposes of section 214D(3) of the Act, the Board may make a recommendation relating to the declaration of a municipal area or part of a municipal area as a city if all of the following circumstances exist:
(a) for 5 years immediately preceding the Board’s review, the municipal area had a population of at least 20 000 persons;
(b) at least 60% of the population of the municipal area lives in an urban area;
(c) an elector poll conducted on behalf of the council has indicated that the majority of electors favour the recommendation.

[ Section 38 of the Local Government (General) Regulations 2015 ]

Back to the original question: why do some care so much?

Is it a feel-good thing? Do the residents of Glenorchy have greater pride in where they live because it is a city?

Does it add to the Glenorchy brand (whatever that is)? Is it about having Glenorchy perceived as an urban centre rather than simply a collection of dormitory suburbs? The G brand needs all the help it can get because G is geographically simply an extension of the City of Hobart.

Does it give Glenorchy extra privileges, advantages, opportunities or powers? Commonwealth legislation?

I suppose that being a city means that Glenorchy can be a sister city to another city (Australian or overseas). Glenorchy can’t have a sister city if it isn’t a city.

I still don’t get it … so I shall ask Council. I’ll keep you posted.