Shane Van Styn reflects on eight years as mayor of Greater Geraldton after shock loss to deputy Jerry Clune

Larrikin defender of the boardies and thongs. Amateur boxer. Stern leader who fiercely advocated for Geraldton. Polarising figure. No one can argue Shane Van Styn’s eight years as mayor were boring. Anna Cox reports. “I wanted people to vote for me for who I am. I’d much rather lose as myself than win trying to be someone I’m not.” After eight years as Mayor of Greater Geraldton and four years before that as a councillor, Shane Van Styn has no regrets about his tenure at the top or his campaign that resulted in a surprising, narrow loss to his deputy Jerry Clune. After a tense weekend of counting, Mr Clune was declared the City’s new mayor on Monday morning, by just 285 votes after final preferences were distributed. Mr Van Styn had been almost 500 votes in front at the first count. A loss was something Mr Van Styn did not see coming. “I didn’t pick up that there was an appetite for change, and nothing has changed. We now have a mayor that’s been in council for the same amount (of time) that I have,” he told the Geraldton Guardian over a coffee this week, still digesting the brutal reality of politics and elections. Reflecting on his leadership, Mr Van Styn is adamant he would not change a thing. A highlight, he says, is the initial hard yards he put in to the City when he first assumed his role as mayor in 2015. “The City had just had a rates rise of 27 per cent. I came in and put a stop to that nonsense, they were operating in a $9 million deficit and I brought it into a $1 million surplus and made sure rates rises were never more than the rate of inflation,” he said. Mr Van Styn is almost synonymous with Geraldton, and vice versa — putting the City on the map when he told then Prime Minister Scott Morrison to “bugger off” for enforcing a dress code in citizenship ceremonies. He went into bat for boardies and thongs as Australia’s “national dress”, being a perfectly acceptable outfit to wear to a citizenship ceremony. A polarising and outspoken figure he has been the local government equivalent of the fun uncle, poking fun at himself and knowing when he didn’t need to take himself too seriously, but at the same time ruling with an iron fist. His tenure oversaw a transformative time for the City and despite what people thought of him, few could argue of his fierce advocacy for Geraldton. Mr Van Styn also raised eyebrows and reinforced his unusual reputation when he took to the amateur boxing ring, winning a cage fighting match that won him the title of Mid West super heavyweight before he hung up the gloves. He also fought hard for the development of the Beresford Foreshore and saw the start of demolition of the Batavia Motor Inne, which he has spent years living next door to. One of his favourite memories as mayor is one which happened away from prying eyes. “I met this kid who would deliver food from the Point Moore free pantry to people who needed it on his bike, but then the bike broke. I bought him a new one, and he wrote me a letter and drew a picture,” he said. “It’s the things that I didn’t boast about that meant the most. You shouldn’t brag about those things. You just do the because they’re the right thing to do.” Mr Van Styn’s image in the public eye was left tainted after he was alleged to have assaulted a man in a Kalbarri pub in 2019, but was acquitted of the bodily harm charge at a trial in 2020. However, this was not the low. “When I came in as mayor, the City had 420 staff, but I cut it back to 280. That was the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do,” he said. He said he wished he was able to stick around longer to see Cathedral Avenue have “a well deserved facelift”, and wanted to ensure the multi-branding of the City was revised to one clear logo. When he reflects on his legacy, he is confident and happy with the impact he has had on the city. “I know I left Geraldton in a far better place than when I received it,” he said. He accepts he could have rubbed some people up the wrong way, but doesn’t back down from his approach. “One of the worst things in politics today is that everyone hides when it comes to making decisions, people don’t like it but I’m not that guy. I made lots of decisions that might’ve upset people,” he said. “The only wrong decision in life is no decision. I got paid to do one job and that was make decisions.” Mr Van Styn is emotional when he talks about passing the baton and even teared up when a stranger approached him during this interview to thank him. On his successor, he believes Mr Clune would have a vastly different approach to leading the City. “He was duly elected, fair and square . . . I just hope he starts communicating with people and becomes the good mayor Geraldton needs. Because if you can’t talk to the people and talk to the staff, you can’t deliver what people want,” he said. Not only did Mr Van Styn come up against his deputy and an experienced councillor in Mr Clune during the campaign, but two other contenders in his former fiancee Tammy Croasdale and arguably his arch-nemesis, No Mandatory Vaccination candidate Aaron Horsman. Ms Croasdale and Mr Horsman won 2555 votes of the 9242 received in total — almost 28 per cent — and their preferences helped Mr Clune get over the line. “What was difficult was running an election against my ex fiancee and Aaron Horsman,” Mr Van Styn said. When asked how he thinks the refreshed council will perform, he says: “Life will keep moving. Things will inevitably slow down though.” Adding salt to the wounds for Mr Van Styn is that Mr Horsman was elected to council after Mr Clune’s promotion opened up an extra spot. “I find it fascinating that Aaron got elected. Someone who is suing the council for $1000 a day is now on council. That’s actually a bigger deal to me,” he said. Cr Horsman is suing the council for $1000 a day, for describing his remark of Mr Van Styn as a “pathetic leader” as a “defamatory comment” in council minutes. The optional preferential voting system ended up being Mr Van Styn’s undoing, but he remains a supporter. “It kills me to say it but I am a believer in preferential voting. It cost me an election but I believe in it,” he said. So what does the future hold for him? He said the immediate focus was his security business, and cooling down from his eight-year mayoral marathon. Long term, he assures he is “not done taking care of Geraldton. I love Geraldton too much to walk away from it.” Mr Van Styn does not let on to whether or not he will have another crack at politics, after his campaign to represent the Durack electorate as a National Party representative failed in 2014. Meanwhile, he and his fiancee Jazzlyn Leonard are set to wed in New Zealand in January, so there is ample planning to keep him busy. He jokes about cutting the guest list, “now that I don’t have a job”.