Abstract: According to Halligan and Wettenhall, Australian local government has evolved through five stages with the most recent involving ‘substantial reforms and a general renaissance’. At the same time, ‘centralising measures’ have eroded the autonomy of local councils’ in the form of intervention in the planning and development process and absorption of responsibilities. Case studies of a major institution such as the Melbourne City Council (MCC) offer scope for assessing the character of these reforms. In changes implemented to the MCC’s constitution and electoral machinery, especially, it would appear that we have witnessed a recasting of the institution. The effects of which have set it apart from the State’s other local government institutions, diminishing its representative character. Undoubtedly, there are some who see this as a good thing. But it is interesting that those who would see local government as less ‘political’ have themselves been highly political in achieving these ends. It remains to be seen how much further a flight from politics the MCC will be expected to undertake or whether a political renewal of metropolitan local government is possible at some later date. The degree of unanimity or disinterest that now prevails among leaders of both major political parties in Victoria with respect to the changed character of this institution is unprecedented. This may be reflective of local government’s standing in general. Many contemporary observers and the politically engaged dismiss it as a tedious necessity at best and at worst a resource-consuming irrelevancy. Yet local government remains a stepping-stone for the politically active. It attracts considerable community involvement and few would deny that it has its interested parties. A large measure of media attention and persuasive power attaches to the office of Lord Mayor of a capital city like Melbourne. A narrative of the electoral changes to the MCC over the past three decades offers the scope for insight into the forces at work and the interplay of realpolitik behind the supposedly apolitical veneer that is the common representation of local government in Australia.