Lee’s Top End council bid

TOP END BID: Former Mount Gambier mayor Andrew Lee failed in his bid to get elected to the Darwin Council.

FORMER Mount Gambier Mayor Andrew Lee was unsuccessful in his bid to be elected to a council in Australia’s Top End.

The Northern Territory’s Darwin City Council election was held last month with eight candidates contesting three positions for the Darwin ward of Lyons. Mr Lee finished sixth.

Mr Lee held the position of Mount Gambier mayor after being elected in 2014. In 2018 he was defeated by current mayor Lynette Martin.

In 2017 the State’s Ombudsman cleared Mr Lee of misconduct after claims he had used his mayoral position to gain a personal benefit. However, the ombudsman said Mr Lee had “walked a very fine ethical line” in dealings with a Chinese company that bought the Rymill winery in Coonawarra.

“Given the language and cultural differences involved, and perhaps an incomplete understanding of the history of the deal on the part of some observers, it is not difficult to see why some in Australia have concluded that Mayor Lee’s business dealings in the winery sale were suspicious,” Ombudsman Wayne Lines said.