Australian ‘Survivor’ star considers return to politics

Being the first in his family to go to university is a big achievement for his family, which has suffered so much. Mladenov’s father is Greek Macedonian; his grandmother was sent to the Soviet Union by Stalin after World War II. Mladenov’s father was born in Uzbekistan as a stateless citizen and was later brought back to Australia by relatives who immigrated to Australia decades ago.

I ask him if his father’s family has experienced a lot of trauma. “They don’t think about it,” he says. His parents clean houses and raise children, “that’s what they do,” he says. “They’re happy with their lives.” His neighbours have similar stories. “If you’re from Bankstown, you get a different perspective on what’s important in life, what your priorities are, and it keeps you grounded.”

Mladenov’s love for his hometown led him to politics. When he talks about Bankstown, he doesn’t mean Canterbury-Bankstown, the uneasy alliance between two councils created by the writing of the maquis over Macquarie St. He means the old Bankstown council area, which stretches all the way to Villawood, all the way to Panania, all the way to Lekamba.

He believes there needs to be advocates, as the coronavirus lockdown has shown. “It’s been eye-opening — and disappointing, to be honest,” he says as we have coffee at Chinchilla Xpress in the desolate, dated Bankstown Plaza, which is almost empty of shoppers on a Monday lunchtime.

“It’s made people realise that we don’t have the same social infrastructure as other parts of Sydney. The local community deserves better; it deserves better. You can think about why we don’t have those quality of life indicators of infrastructure … whether it’s due to poor decision-making or poor leadership.”

He felt that way as a teenager, too, so at 15, Mladenov “voluntarily” joined his local Labour Party, he said. “Very few people would join the Labour Party, especially historically in this area,” he said, meaning that new members are often lured to the party by other members to boost their faction’s turnout.

loading

He tried Young Labor, a path taken by most of the party’s successful politicians (including a fair share of the NSW government front bench), but he didn’t like it. It felt like an extension of the Sydney University Labor Club, “where people only thought in a certain way, and people in south-west Sydney and western Sydney didn’t think that way”.

After one particularly unpleasant experience, he never returned to the party youth branch. “It was very stupid and naive… I started talking about the state of the pavements in Bankstown,” he said. “I wish I could remember who it was, but someone on the then Young Labour executive committee stood up and said, ‘Nobody cares about Bankstown’.”

He focused on local branches, helped campaign, and became chairman of the Bankstown Labor Party. He was an avid soccer fan and was on the board of the Bankstown Football Club when the club signed the then 16-year-old soccer prodigy Mary Fowler, who went on to become a star in Australian women’s soccer.

For several years he was the returning officer for local councillor Tania Mihailuk, who resigned from Labor before last year’s state election after using parliamentary privilege to sensationally claim that then-Canterbury-Bankstown mayor Khal Asfour was acting for developers and “certain identities, particularly (corrupt former Labor MP) Eddie Obeid” (A parliamentary inquiry cleared Mihailuk of the allegations, but Asfour withdrew from Labor’s upper house race. He is standing for parliament again).

Mladenov quit the Labour Party around the same time. He said he had no problems with the party and would not follow Mikhayluk into One Nation – “I am happy to tell you that I am … very far removed from the party on the political spectrum”. Politics was too much of a burden on his life. The work was unpaid and all-consuming. “It took a lot of toll on him personally … without much reward. Managing the local branches, campaigning at every election brought its own stress.”

In 2021, Mladenov has made his decision. He is confident of securing a safe seat in Labor’s Canterbury-Bankstown City Council preselection. He has been invited to run for Ssurvivor“I (thought), ‘Can I do both? Can you be on a TV show and be a real-life political candidate?’ (It) probably wouldn’t work. I decided to put myself first for the first time in 10 years. And I’m glad I did.”

Mladenov is Australian Survivor (Former Olympian and senator Nova Peris was a contestant in the celebrity version.) He is not good at physical challenges, but his years of experience on the New South Wales right wing and his love of poker give him a tactical advantage.

He doesn’t play small. “I hate politicians who don’t do anything because it makes them less threatening,” he said. Historically, that approach has worked for winners. Australian Survivor I am no different. “I don’t play cookie-cutter roles. survivor I didn’t have to wait my whole life or a global pandemic to get going. survivor do nothing.”

He used his campaign experience, the ability to read a situation and map out the steps needed to make progress, while outsmarting his opponents. “I would treat … players as chess pieces and guide them in unconventional directions.”

He knew that his teammates would not see him as valuable because of his relative lack of muscle, and that the way to gain protection from being ejected and to alleviate his physical lack was to win. survivor challenge.

“But if I can fool key people into looking at more than just strength and performance in a challenge, I’ll be someone who has some influence on the sport. To do that, I have to take three steps back and tell myself that if I succeed, I’ll take seven steps forward.”

Another skill he’s thankfully honed during years of meetings at the Bankstown branch is relationship building. “You should always be clear about what people’s priorities and intentions are. When multiple parties win, that’s the best deal at the time,” he says. He thinks the word manipulation has a bad reputation. “What’s the difference between manipulation and influence? Semantics.”

Mladenov finished second in both events survivor season, enjoying the celebrity life. He just finished a tour of the United States, during which he hosted survivor Watching the party with another former contestant. He has 49,000 followers on Instagram and is popular on the website Cameo, where he can record personalised video messages for $36. He no longer has to spend time building relationships in Bankstown; people who recognise him on TV approach him on the street.

That got him thinking. Local government elections are due in September. Given his celebrity status as the King of Bankstown, Mladenov doesn’t need a party apparatus to spread his name around the community. Perhaps celebrity and politics aren’t mutually exclusive; just look at Republicans Ronald Reagan, Arnold Schwarzenegger and, more recently, Donald Trump, for whom Celebrity Apprentice Paved the way for the presidency.

loading

Local government, like state and federal government, is dominated by party politics. It is less scrutinized than the other two tiers and can therefore be dirtier; local councils keep corruption watchdogs busy, and Canterbury-Bankstown has had more scandals than it should. Independents are less likely than partisans to use local government as a springboard, so they often make the most effective representatives.

“I don’t rule out running (for council) as an independent,” Mladenov said. “Here’s how I look at it; when you enter politics you make huge sacrifices in your personal life. I have to decide by August 15 whether I want to be a candidate. If I run as an independent in the local government elections, where there are three councillors per ward, will I be elected? I think I will.

“I think some people find this scary. They have good reason to be scared.”

Start your day with a roundup of the day’s most important and interesting stories, analysis, and insights. Subscribe to our morning newsletter.