Councillors Dallas Tout and Georgie Davies have been elected mayor and deputy mayor respectively. Photo: Jarryd Rowley.
Dallas Tout and Georgie Davies will continue to lead Wagga Wagga City Council after being re-elected as mayor and deputy mayor.
Councillor Tout defeated councillor Amelia Parkins six votes to three in the mayoral election, securing another two years in the city’s top local government role.
Councillors Georgie Davies, Lindsay Tanner, Michael Henderson, Allana Condron and Karissa Subedi voted for Cr Tout, while councillors Richard Foley, Jenny McKinnon and Amelia Parkins supported Cr Parkins.
Cr Davies was also returned to the deputy mayor’s position on Monday night after defeating councillors Lindsay Tanner and Richard Foley in the contest.
Crs Tout, Henderson, Condron and Subedi supported Cr Davies, while Crs McKinnon and Parkins backed Cr Foley. Cr Tanner received only his own vote in the first round before supporting Cr Foley in the second, which Cr Davies won 5-4.
Unlike Griffith City Council, where the mayor is directly elected by residents, Wagga Wagga’s mayor is chosen by the nine councillors from within the council, meaning voters elect the councillors but not the mayor directly.
The mayoral term in Wagga is two years, while councillors resolved to elect its deputy mayor for one-year terms.
The leadership contests this week were preceded by a debate over whether the elections should be conducted by secret ballot or openly.
Cr Davies argued in favour of an open vote.
“If it’s cast in secret, constituents have no way of knowing whether a councillor voted for who they promised to support or whether backroom deals were done,” she said.
“If you can’t be transparent about the person you want to support, that says a lot about council.”
A majority of councillors subsequently supported conducting the elections openly.
Cr Parkins congratulated those elected after the mayoral vote.
“Thank you to everyone who has shown me such beautiful support and encouragement in my bid for mayor. I truly appreciate you all and while I was not successful tonight I will continue to do my best to serve our community,” she said.
Amelia Parkins was gracious in defeat Photo: Shri Gayathirie Rajen.
The mayoral vote result extends Cr Tout’s tenure in the top role, which began when he beat then-Labor councillor Dan Hayes 7-2 in January 2022, before being re-elected unopposed in September 2023 and then defeating Cr Parkins 7-2 in October 2024.
Monday night’s result means Cr Tout has now been mayor continuously for almost five years and will remain in the position until 2028.
Before joining Wagga Council, Cr Tout spent 12 years on Gundagai Shire Council, including six as deputy mayor. Born and raised in Gundagai, he studied accountancy at the former Riverina College of Advanced Education before working for the Australian Bureau of Statistics in Canberra and later co-owning the Gundagai Newsagency with his brother. He moved with his family to Oura in 2008 and became a finance manager at Charles Sturt University before being elected to Wagga Council in 2012.
Cr Davies was first elected to Wagga Wagga City Council in 2021 and was initially elected deputy mayor in October 2024.
She was re-elected deputy mayor in September 2025, when council confirmed the position would continue to be elected annually.
The 2026 election marks her third consecutive term as deputy mayor.
Cr Davies grew up in Wagga and has built a career in communications. She works for government research body AgriFutures Australia.
