Our exclusive interview with Bankstown Mayor Bilal El-Hayek uncovers his true nature: the family man, the local representative, the volunteer at community events and the passion he has for his Bankstown area. Suzy Michael, our editor-in-chief, asked Mayor Bilal some personal and biographical questions about his upbringing, community involvement and professional work.
S: You were elected as Mayor following the resignation of Councillor Karl Asfour, to whom you were Deputy Mayor. With over 10 years of serving the community, our readers could benefit knowing more about you…who is Bilal El-Hayek?
B: Well, Bilal is a local boy. I grew up in Canterbury Bankstown, born overseas in Lebanon, came to this country as a kid when I was 12 years old, not speaking a word of English, so I went to English school, and I caught the 405 bus every morning from Lakemba to Beverley Hills and back. I attended English school for approximately six-to-nine months. And then from there I went to Punchbowl Boys High School for one year, and I finished my senior school schooling years at Nurul Huda, now called the Australian International Academy. I’m a married man with my beautiful wife and four kids: 15-year-old Mustafa, 11-year-old Tasnim and Adam, who are twins, and a four-year-old little Noah.
I’ve always been involved in community. I grew up with five siblings. I lived in Lakemba as soon as we arrived from Lebanon we lived in Lakemba, then moved to Punchbowl and now in Greenacre. I’ve been in Greenacre for over 20 years, so quite the local boy, everything I’ve ever done is local.
S: Tell me a little bit more about family and the importance of family, as you mentioned you’re one of five siblings, then have four of your own children. How is family important to you?
B: Family is the most important thing in my life. I remember my late father, when he came here in 1999, it was because of his family. He wanted a better life for his family, he wanted a better education for his family and so he travelled and changed his lifestyle to come to Australia for us…to offer us a better life. He struggled for his family. So, I was taught that family is the most important thing in life. Going home at night, sometimes I’m late…actually, a lot of times I’m late. Seeing my little Noah coming up and giving me a big hug and smiling…that’s what it’s all about.
S: What are some of your hobbies?
B: Oh, I did karate growing up as a kid, I’m actually a black belt. I try to go fishing when I can with the kids, I play soccer a couple of times a week. This job has a lot of pressures like any other job, so you just sometimes need to try to switch off for an hour, even if it’s just an hour or a couple of hours a week to refresh.
S: Your zeal for serving the community and special interest in youth service, local council has been a fruitful medium for you. However, I would like to learn more about why and how you initially contested a seat on Canterbury-Bankstown council?
B: I’m just going to go back a bit further. I’ve always been involved in community: years before I got on council in 2017, I worked for a number of local organisations. I never left Canterbury Bankstown, even for my jobs. So, I worked for a number of organisations which led me to the PCYC at Bankstown. I was there just for under 10 years doing family support, youth support, assisting troubled young people, trying to turn their lives around. When I was a kid, I started my own karate classes, teaching karate when I was 16 or 17 years old and that helped me become a role model for those 30-40 kids that I taught. I did that at Lakemba Sports Club, and I couldn’t afford to pay for the rent at the time to teach those kids. I remember that one day, Dr. Jamal Rifi said to me, ‘look, don’t worry about the rent, just do what you need to do, and we’ll support you as much as possible.’ Maybe he saw something in that young Bilal that’s very passionate and he wanted to guide him and keep that energy on the right path, which is what happened.
S: Tell me more about your community work.
B: As I said, I’ve worked for a number of organisations, as well in the PCYC for almost 10 years and hearing a lot of stories from young people putting a smile on a lot of families’ faces. I remember this story one day where I took a group of, I think, 50 kids and their families to the zoo, something we take for granted, right? And as we got onto the Harbour Bridge, one of the kids who was a young girl just jumps up, and she says ‘wow! That’s the Harbour Bridge!’ and I was shocked to know that she’s never ever actually seen the Harbour Bridge physically. She was 10 years old, and I was shocked. These are little things that people don’t sometimes know about, but these are the real stories that put a smile on my face and people’s faces because that’s real change. To this day, I do a lot of volunteering – I volunteer for Meals on Wheels every Wednesday. As a matter of fact, when I got elected, I made sure that I am able to continue to volunteer for Meals on Wheels every Wednesday where we deliver hot and cold food, cooked food to people that are elderly, people that are struggling, disadvantaged, to make sure that they have something to eat every day. And not only to eat, but these are people that have no family or friends, so sometimes when you meet them, we’re the only human contact they have for that day, or potentially for that whole week. I love working for the community, I love serving the community. I’m passionate about the community and I’ll always try to give back, because the community has given me so much, this country has given me so much and it’s my time to say thank you.
S: And is that why you contested the seat on council?
B: I just wanted to be a voice, I wanted to be a voice for those that had no voice. I wanted to be a voice for people that were struggling to put food on the table. So hence, I was honoured in 2017 to be pre-selected for the Labour Party and I was honoured to be elected in 2017 as well on the ticket and I served as Deputy Mayor twice from 2017 till today, and was elected Mayor, unopposed.
S: You mentioned about community being very important, obviously we know that you love community service. What other community initiatives would you like to see?
B: Look, I’m very passionate about delivering services for young people. We have several initiatives that we’re trying to work on at the moment, one of them is the Canterbury Leisure and Aquatic Centre. It’s a whopping $60 million project that will deliver a brand-new aquatic facility for the locals. I think that consists of three pools as well. One of them is an enclosed pool for females or people that just want to have their own private place. Times are changing, and we’re very happy and very proud to be able to cater for the whole community. That’s just one of the projects. We’re also looking at building a knowledge centre, like a library, in Panania, a community centre in Greenacre, a community centre at Thurina Park, and a heap of other things happening revolving around community.
S: Who are some of your role models and why are they your role models?
B: Well, definitely Tony Burke. Tony Burke is not only a friend, but also a mentor. Tony is someone who I’ve always gone to for advice, and he was always there. Another role model is Jihad Dib. Jihad is a friend, a brother, whom I talk to almost on a daily basis just to discuss what’s going on in the community, how we can better support the community, what projects we can deliver for the community. These are a couple of politicians of course, but another central role model is my late father. As I mentioned earlier, he travelled the world for us, he worked hard for us. He worked so hard so we went to school, so he can put food on the table. We weren’t a very wealthy family, but dad made sure that he had all the means provided for us, even until the day we got married. He saw me get elected to Council in 2017, and I’ve never ever seen my dad as proud as he looked on that day – that was a special moment. I still have the videos and the photos, and you can see a tear in his eye, and you can see the happiness.
S: What’s your passion and what motivates you?
B: Putting smiles on people’s faces. Assisting people and helping where I can. There’s a lot of things that I can’t do, but there’s a lot of things that I can do as well. So, whatever I can assist with, I am happy to. I have a lot of passion for the community obviously, for volunteering, and now, being mayor, looking at the bigger picture in terms of building a whole city: improving people’s lifestyles, improving healthcare, roads, community facilities, parks, a whole city. I’ve been part of many projects and I’ve helped with a lot of organisations as a volunteer,
Here’s a great story: I remember going to bushfire-affected areas, and flood-affected areas. On one particular instance, I remember I went to Taree during the bushfires, and a group of us did a call out to ‘help a couple of mates.’ I believe it’s our duty to help our fellow Australian citizens. So, we did a call out on a Tuesday, and on the Friday we had five truckloads at the PCYC. The truckloads were completely full, and everything was donated to help these people in Taree. Just to further put things in perspective: After we did the call out on Tuesday, I got a call on the Wednesday night from random people we’ve never met who told us, ‘we’ve seen what you’re doing, and we want to help.’ The truck driver that helped says, ‘I own a truck company, so I can donate trucks, petrol, drivers.’ Everybody did what they could in their capacity to help. These are untold stories about local people. These are people that live locally.
S: Why do you love getting your hands into community service?
B: Because this is who I am, and this is what made me who I am. It’s the grassroots. I had great teachers back at school as well. They instilled that passion in community in me. As a matter of fact, until this day I catch up with these teachers. Some of these teachers are now my son’s teacher. I reminisce back at school; I did a lot of community projects together and I’m so passionate about it and I love it. It’s where change starts. It’s just on a on a grassroots level, but this is where you make the real difference in people’s lives
S: You have a few months left in in your current term – what do you hope to do in this time?
B: I want to reach as many people as possible, speak to people, meet people, go to local town centres, neighbourhoods, shopping centres and just have a chat, see what people’s needs are and hopefully we can build on these needs into the future. There’s a few projects that I would like to kick off, one of them is that Canterbury leisure and aquatic centre that’ll be a huge achievement. The tender was awarded for this, so we’re ready to go. So, this is one of the projects in the next couple of months I would love to kickstart, and other projects include the library knowledge centre and the community centres to secure a good future for our local community.
S: What are the dynamics amongst yourselves as councillors with this sudden shift in Mayorship, and how has this new post affected your relationship with Councillor Asfour?
B: I’m very close friends with Councillor Asfour. We talk all the time, and if I need advice, I give him a call. I was honoured to be elected unopposed, even with the Liberal Party presence and an Independent that voted for me – this is local government. The ultimate aim is to deliver for the local community. So, we take politics out of it as much as possible, and work together for the benefit of the people, which is what it’s all about.
S: What is your message to the people of your Local Government Area?
B: Be proud of the community, be proud of where you live. There’s a bit of perception out there ab out crime in the local area. I just went to a meeting earlier, and I can confirm that our crime levels are very low. Our community is fantastic. Take a bit of pride in your community – we live in one of the best cities, if not the best city, in Australia. We live in a city where if you want to try the different food from the many countries of the world, we have that right here in our backyard – people don’t need to travel the world to try the different foods and see the different cultures and different religions, you only have to come to Canterbury Bankstown to see it all. I’m so proud of our mix. Our multiculturalism is a fantastic thing that we have and we’re very proud of it. Not only multicultural, multi-faith as well. You know, we live in a very harmonious local area where we all look after one another. I absolutely love that.