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Damien Ryan (politician)

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Damien Ryan
Mayor of Alice Springs
In office
30 March 2008 – 14 September 2021
office vacant 7 Aug – 7 Sep 2020
Preceded byFran Kilgariff
Succeeded byMatt Paterson
Personal details
Born
Damien Ryan

(1955-09-08)8 September 1955
Political partyCountry Liberal

Damien Ryan (born 8 September 1955) is a community leader and advocate from Central Australia and the longest serving Mayor of Alice Springs.[1]

Damien has served in a variety of public positions and on boards for many Central Australian government and non-government organisations. He has run for both the Territory and Federal parliaments as a candidate for the Country Liberal Party and is a public figure in Alice Springs.[2] Damien currently works as the head of projects in the remote town of Kintore for the MacDonnell Regional Council.

Early life and career

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Damien Ryan opened a camera and photography shop in Alice Springs in 1971[3] which he owned and, for many years, operated until 2008, when he sold the business following his election as Mayor.

Damien spent multiple years operating remote roadhouses, first at the historic Mt Ebenezer Roadhouse on the Lasster Highway and then at the Dunmurra Wayside Inn on the Stuart Highway.[3][4][5]

He has also had a long standing relationship with the Finke Desert Race, serving as the inaugural President of the Organising Committee.[3] He is now an Honorary Life Member of the Finke Desert Race.[6]

In 2008 he was appointed as the Northern Territory Grants Commissioner for the Northern Territory Grants Commission,[7] a role he kept until 2019.

He served as the Chair of the Alice Springs Alcohol Reference Group from 2014 to 2020, a particularly challenging role considering the Northern Territory Emergency Intervention, which he supported.[8]

In 2013 Damien was appointed by the relatively new Chief Minister Adam Giles as the Chair of the Central Australian Health Service,[9] a role he maintained until 2017.

In 2015 he was appointed as the Chair of the Alice Springs Masters Games.[10]

Political career

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Mayor of Alice Springs

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Damien Ryan was first elected as the Mayor of Alice Springs at the 2008 Northern Territory Local Government Elections, where he gained 67% of the two-party-preferred vote.[11] He was subsequently re-elected in 2012[12] and for a third term in 2017.[13] He briefly resigned as Mayor in 2020 to run as the CLP candidate for Araluen.[14][15]

He did not seek re-election in 2021 as he had been preselected as the CLP candidate for Lingiari for the following year's election.[16][17] In his final term as Mayor, fellow Country Liberal Party member (and future Senator) Jacinta Nampijinpa Price was elected to serve as his deputy.[18]

Damien served as the President of the Local Government Association of the Northern Territory (LGANT) for a number of years between 2012 and 2020.[19] Moreover, he was also elected as the Vice President of the Australian Local Government Association from 2016 to 2018.

Damien holds the record as the longest serving Mayor of Alice Springs.

Territory and Federal Politics

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Damien Ryan in 2022

Although he consistently ran for Mayor as an independent candidate, Damien Ryan is a member of the Alice Springs Branch of the Country Liberal Party (CLP). Damien was the CLP candidate for the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly Division of Araluen in the 2020 Northern Territory election,[4][15] where he was defeated by incumbent MLA and former CLP member Robyn Lambley.[4]

He again ran as a CLP candidate in the 2022 Australian federal election for the Federal Division of Lingiari,[20][21] a seat which covers almost the entire Northern Territory except for the city of Darwin. He lost.[22][5][23]

Personal life

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Carmel, Damien's mother, moved to the Northern Territory on New Years Day 1950, seeking "an adventure", after reading We of the Never Never in her high-school studies. Also in 1948, Damien's father John moved to Tennant Creek, where he eventually met his mother.[3][24]

John Ryan's sister Mary married Peter McCracken, who owned and ran Elsey Station which is the basis for the novel We of the Never Never, thus connecting his family to the novel through marriage and many family holidays and visits spent on the famous station.[3]

John Ryan went on to build a trucking business with Noel Buntine of the Buntine family, a pioneer of the roadtrain industry in Australia.[25][24]

Damien Ryan is a Catholic. Along with his three brothers,[3] he attended the Catholic Boarding and Day School Rostrevor in Adelaide.

Damien is married to Joanne, with whom he has three daughters and two grandchildren. Damien's son-in-law is Joshua Burgoyne, CLP Member of the Legislative Assembly for the Alice Springs electorate of Braitling.[26]

References

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  1. ^ "Who's on the line up for the 2020 NT election? Seven new CLP candidate have been confirmed". ABC News. 21 September 2019. Retrieved 21 April 2023.
  2. ^ "Damien Ryan". The Nationals. Retrieved 13 April 2023.
  3. ^ a b c d e f "Guestroom - Damien Ryan - ABC (none) - Australian Broadcasting Corporation". www.abc.net.au. Retrieved 18 April 2023.
  4. ^ a b c "Araluen - NT Electorate, Candidates, Results". abc.net.au. Retrieved 13 April 2023.
  5. ^ a b "Get to Know: Damien Ryan". NT Independent. 2022.
  6. ^ "Damien Ryan". ABC Radio National. Retrieved 18 April 2023.
  7. ^ "NT Grants Commission on the road in West Arnhem". www.westarnhem.nt.gov.au. Retrieved 18 April 2023.
  8. ^ "Meet the candidate: Damien Ryan - ABC (none) - Australian Broadcasting Corporation". www.abc.net.au. Retrieved 18 April 2023.
  9. ^ Chl, Erwin; a (2 July 2014). "Ryan earning more from govt. jobs than for being Mayor - Alice Springs News". Retrieved 18 April 2023.
  10. ^ Newsroom, Northern Territory Government (26 October 2021). "Article". Northern Territory Government Newsroom. Retrieved 18 April 2023. {{cite web}}: |last= has generic name (help)
  11. ^ "Northern Territory Electoral Commission Results". Local Government - Alice Springs. 2008.
  12. ^ "2012 LG General Elections". NTEC. 23 April 2020. Retrieved 13 April 2023.
  13. ^ "Results". NTEC. 31 October 2018. Retrieved 13 April 2023.
  14. ^ "Alice Springs mayor and deputy resign for NT election". NT Independent. 7 August 2020.
  15. ^ a b "'I feel insulted, I feel disrespected': Alice Springs Mayor slams claims of a 'conflict of interest'". ABC News. 29 January 2020. Retrieved 21 April 2023.
  16. ^ "Mayor Shares Vision for Alice Springs 28/06/2021". NT News.
  17. ^ "Damien Ryan will not recontest Mayor". NT News. 28 May 2021. Retrieved 18 April 2022.
  18. ^ "About Jacinta". Jacinta Price. Retrieved 18 April 2023.
  19. ^ Damien, Ryan. "LGANT Letter from President" (PDF). Local Government Association NT.
  20. ^ "Election 2022: Northern Territory". Katherine Times. 21 May 2022. Retrieved 21 April 2023.
  21. ^ Visentin, Lisa (5 May 2022). "Why the Coalition thinks it can win this NT seat for the first time". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 21 April 2023.
  22. ^ "Lingiari (Key Seat) - Federal Electorate, Candidates, Results". abc.net.au. Retrieved 13 April 2023.
  23. ^ "Labor set to win bush seat of Lingiari, fighting off swing towards Coalition". ABC News. 21 May 2022. Retrieved 21 April 2023.
  24. ^ a b "John F Ryan AM". National Road Transport Museum. Retrieved 18 April 2023.
  25. ^ Smith, Robyn, "Buntine, Noel Lyntton (1927–1994)", Australian Dictionary of Biography, Canberra: National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, retrieved 18 April 2023
  26. ^ Chlanda, Erwin (7 September 2020). "Damien Ryan: I am the Mayor again - Alice Springs News". Retrieved 18 April 2023.
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