Highlights
- Intaj Khan is a councillor from the City of Wyndham in Melbourne's west
- He was first elected to the council in 2012 and was re-elected in 2016
- Mr Khan aspires to be elected to the Victorian state parliament
The Indian-origin councillor has faced a string of allegations in his eight-year-long political career.
After being re-elected as a Councillor twice, being convicted for failure to disclose financial interests and directorships, and having recently received an apology from the Fairfax media, Mr Khan has never been too far away from the headlines.
Speaking to SBS Punjabi he now says, "It’s now time to move on."
Having previously sought nomination as a state ALP candidate, the 46-year-old readily acknowledges that he would yet again vie for a seat in the state parliament.
“There has been very less representation in the state parliament of people from migrant background or from the South Asian community and even lesser if you compare it to countries like Canada or the UK," Mr Khan tells SBS Punjabi.
Councillor Intaj Khan Source: Supplied
Wyndham- the area I currently represent as a councillor has a very large migrant community, so if given an opportunity to represent them at the state level, I would consider doing that - Cr Intaj Khan
Mr Khan, whose business interests include private training colleges, commercial property and land development, has been a Councillor since 2012. He currently holds the Wyndham council’s Urban Futures portfolio which covers liveability, housing, design and financial planning.
Asked if he’d like to run for a third term in the upcoming council elections in October, he says chances are that he would be contesting again.
“There is a lot of uncertainty around council elections in October due to the COVID-19 situation. As far as my decision is concerned, I think I have always helped the community and that’s the only reason that I contested in 2012 and got re-elected in 2016. I haven’t made up my mind, but chances are that I would be running for another term,” he says.
But his journey has not been without its challenges. Mr Khan suffered a series of setbacks after his re-election to the council in 2016. He was charged with multiple offences over an alleged failure to disclose his directorship in non-trading Australian companies in 2017.
Skirting over the charges, Mr Khan says that issue has now been addressed and all part of his past.
“That was settled. It was a separate issue concerning not lodging paperwork on time. It constituted a breach of the local act that has also been addressed,” he says.
Mr Khan was recently in news yet again after he sued The Age over the publication of a series of articles by Fairfax media.
The councillor says he has reached a settlement with the newspaper, that has, in turn, tendered an apology and unpublished all the articles in question.
“The articles were published in the past. All I’d like to say is that I am bound by confidentiality. An apology has been published in the newspaper and the articles have been removed,” he adds.
