Mayor 1996 - 2000
Richard Torbay served as Mayor of Armidale City Council (ACC) from 1995-2000. He was elected to Council in 1991 and was Deputy Mayor from 1992-1993. During that time he was Chairman of the New England Local Government Group, Chairman of the Country Mayors Association (1996-1997), established the Armidale Building the Future Forum and was a member of the NSW Water Supply and Resources Committee.
As Armidale City Council Mayor he worked with Peter Monley, President of the Dumaresq Shire Council, for an amalgamation of the two councils as Armidale Dumaresq Council in 2000. He had been elected Member for Northern Tablelands in the 1999 NSW elections and resigned from Council in 2000. He was awarded the title of Emeritus Mayor by the Local Government and Shires Association.
Mr Torbay started work as a kitchen hand at the UNE Union in 1981 and rose to become its Warden (the position is now called Chief Executive Officer) in 1991. During this period he expanded the organisation to 170 staff with an annual budget of $8 million, made record profits for Student Services, established the Belgrave Twin Cinema in conjunction with the Armidale Ex-Services Club and acquired Tattersalls Hotel for Student Services.
As Member for Northern Tablelands he won the seat at the 1999, 2003, 2007 and 2011 elections and served as the first Independent Speaker of the NSW Parliament from 2007-2011. He achieved significant levels of funding for civic and community projects across the Tablelands electorate including a new police station and court house for Armidale.
He was a member of the Public Accounts Committee (1999-2007), the Speaker’s Technology Advisory Group, Joint Committee on the Office of Valuer-General, the Regional Investment Taskforce, the Joint Select Committee on Bushfires and Chaired the Joint Committee on Tobacco Smoking in NSW.
He served as a member of the Premier’s Regional and Rural Taskforce, Ex-Officio Chair, Standing Orders and Procedure Committee, Joint Chair of the Joint Select Committee on Parliamentary Procedure. He restructured the Parliament’s administration and established the Department of Parliamentary Services. He reviewed and reformed the administration of Member’s entitlements, upgraded the Legislative Assembly Chamber, reviewed and updated Standing Orders to incorporate family friendly hours and streamline procures. He secured a significant increase in the budget for the administration of parliament, upgraded Security, IT and communications for MPs. He was Regional Representative of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association and a member of the Executive Committee, Parliamentary Association.
A member of the Council of the University of New England Mr Torbay was elected Chancellor in 2013, recruiting Professor Jim Barber as Vice-Chancellor, implemented best practice governance policies, defined the roles of governance of management and guided the process to set the strategic director of UNE and presided over achieving a significant budget surplus.