Readings’ Managing Director, Mark Rubbo, is in the running for the Melbourne City Council’s election (Saturday 27 October). He chats about his vision for Melbourne’s future here.

How would you describe the cultural life of Melbourne?

It’s pretty vibrant but of course could be better. Personally I’m disappointed that the MCC hasn’t engaged more with Melbourne’s UNESCO City of Literature designation. If I was elected to council I’d like to get some things going to support that.

What are some changes you’ve seen unfold within our city’s creative scene since you first became the co-owner of Readings in the 70s?

There have been many. The growth of Australian writing and publishing has been very exciting for me personally and very important for Melbourne and the country as a whole.

There’s also been a huge investment in Melbourne’s cultural infrastructure – the NGV at Federation Square, the Melbourne Recital Centre, The Malthouse Theatre, The Melbourne Museum, ACMI, ACCA, Heide and The Wheeler Centre. There’s also been the rise of new festivals and the maturation of existing ones. When you think about it, these are pretty impressive changes and the city should be very proud.

I think Melbourne and its arts practitioners have become much more confident culturally. The arts scene seems to have become a lot more mainstream, which is good because they are appealing and speaking to a much broader cross section of the community, but perhaps they are not as edgy as they were in the ’good old days’!

One of the things, I’d like to do if elected is launch a public art program that commissions a major art work every year to grace our streets .

You already demonstrate strong support for literacy, art and community through

Readings has been reasonably successful and in the last few years we’ve managed to pay off our debts. The Melbourne community has always been good to us and we thought we’d like to give something back. I went to a talk by Peter Singer on the process of ‘giving’ a couple of years ago and found this very inspiring. During the talk Peter recommended we strive to give 20% of our total income away. We give 10% of our profits to our foundation, so we are not quite up to Peter’s ideal… yet.

My goal is to build up the Foundation so that it can continue to support our community for many years to come. I hope it will become something that Melburnians benefit from and take pleasure in because ultimately our profits come from their support of Readings.

How are you hoping to further encourage literacy and reading through council?

The Children’s Book Festival which is run by the Wheeler Centre and the State Library has been a huge success. I think that with proper support from the MCC this festival could become a major and important event celebrating literacy, and the important role books play in childhood development.

I also like the idea of Melbourne having a Poet Laureate, a creative person to interpret the city and surrounding world. It would also be a wonderful way of acknowledging poets and their contribution..

What are your top three iconic Melbourne books?

Monkey Grip of course; it was Readings’ first Australian big seller. I’ve always liked Andrea Goldsmith’s Reunion – although it could be set anywhere, it’s a very Melbourne book about ideas – and finally, any of Shane Maloney’s books; I like them because they take the piss out of Melbourne.

For more information on the election please see