John Hayward Mant AM (1936–2021) was an Australian lawyer and urban planner known for his work on planning systems, housing policy and local government law in New South Wales. He worked on national urban policy under Prime Minister Gough Whitlam, led a housing department in South Australia, chaired a federal urban design task force, and served as a City of Sydney councillor from 2012 to 2016.
Background
John Hayward Mant was born on 20 October 1936 in Sydney, New South Wales, the youngest child of John Francis Mant and Helen Mant. He later described his generation as fortunate to have been born as the Great Depression was ending, too young for the Second World War and Korea and too old for Vietnam.
His father, a solicitor, served as a lieutenant colonel and chief legal officer in the Australian Army during the Second World War. He was also a founding and active member of the Liberal Party of Australia, which had been formed in 1944 to unite non-Labor forces in national politics. His mother was a kindergarten teacher and the daughter of Justice John Harvey, a former Chief Justice in Equity who was the foundation chair of Cranbrook School.
The family's professional life centred on the law and public service of Sydney, and this background shaped the path that led him into legal practice and urban policy. His upbringing combined a legal household with a school founded by his grandfather's circle of Sydney professionals.
Education
Mant completed his secondary schooling at Cranbrook School, an independent boys' school in Sydney's Bellevue Hill that was founded in 1918. He then enrolled in Arts and Law at Sydney University, fulfilling his parents' expectations. The University of Sydney, established in 1850, was the first university founded in Australia and remained the principal centre of legal education in New South Wales for much of the twentieth century.
He graduated in law in 1963, completing a combined arts and law course that gave him both a general humanities background and a legal qualification. During his student years he was connected with the Sydney University Players, a student theatre group, where he worked as administrator and business manager alongside his childhood friend Ken Horler. Among his contemporaries were the writers Clive James and Richard Walsh and the filmmaker Bruce Beresford.
After his legal studies he pursued further training in planning. He completed a Diploma in Town and Country Planning at Sydney University between 1968 and 1972, which prepared him for work in the planning profession that became central to his later career.
Career
After graduating in law in 1963, Mant worked from 1964 to 1971 in his father's Sydney firm, Davenport & Mant. The firm later became part of Phillips Fox, a Sydney legal practice whose origins trace to a practice founded in 1864 as P. D. Phillips. Phillips Fox later joined the DLA Piper network in 2006 and operated for a time under the name DLA Phillips Fox.
His professional interest in urban planning led him to join the National Capital Development Commission in Canberra as a town planner. The commission, established in 1957, was responsible for planning and developing Canberra as the national capital. In his private time he worked with friends and colleagues on policy for Labor's urban affairs spokesperson, Tom Uren, and for Gough Whitlam.
Mant then advised Tom Uren at the Department of Urban and Regional Development, a federal department created by the Whitlam government in 1973 to coordinate national urban policy. He also served as Principal Private Secretary to Prime Minister Gough Whitlam in the early 1970s. Following this period in Canberra, he became Director-General of the South Australian Department of Housing, Urban and Regional Affairs from 1977 to 1980. In this role he undertook a reorganisation of the department modelled on the Commonwealth's urban reform approach, working for Labor Premier Don Dunstan.
After his return to legal practice, he was admitted to the bar in the early 1980s and worked as a solicitor at Phillips Fox from 1987 to 1993, with work across New South Wales, Victoria and Western Australia. During these years he completed an inquiry into the New South Wales Department of Housing in 1992 and worked on the rewriting of the New South Wales Local Government Act. He also served as a partner of Phillips Fox.
In 1994 he served as Assistant and Acting Commissioner of the New South Wales Independent Commission Against Corruption, an anti-corruption body created by state legislation in the late 1980s to investigate corrupt conduct in public administration. In the same year he chaired Prime Minister Paul Keating's Urban Design Task Force, a federal advisory body concerned with the design quality of Australian cities.
In 2000 he pioneered place-based zoning in a new Local Environmental Plan for Warringah Shire, a northern Sydney local government area on the northern beaches. He later served as a City of Sydney councillor from 2012 to 2016, covering the local government area that includes Sydney's central business district and inner suburbs. His last major project was the proposed Better Places Act, for which he was instigator and co-author.
Achievements
Completed an influential review of the New South Wales Department of Housing in 1992, one of the significant inquiries of his career in public administration.
Comprehensively rewrote the New South Wales Local Government Act in 2003 together with Julie Walton, a major modernisation of the state's local government legislation.
Pioneered place-based zoning in a new Local Environmental Plan for Warringah Shire in 2000, an approach to planning controls that linked zoning to the character of local places.
Instigated and co-authored the proposed Better Places Act, which was his major final project in urban and local government policy.
(Co-written with Ian McKay, Robin Boyd and Hugh Stretton a...)
1971
Politics
John Mant's political engagement centred on urban and social policy during the reform era of Australian Labor politics in the early 1970s. In his own time he worked with friends and colleagues on policy development for Labor's urban affairs spokesperson, Tom Uren, and for the party leader, Gough Whitlam. Labor, founded in the 1890s as the political voice of the labour movement, had by the early 1970s moved toward an active federal role in housing, cities and social welfare, and the Whitlam government of 1972 to 1975 created a dedicated Department of Urban and Regional Development to coordinate national urban policy.
Later he served as an elected councillor of the City of Sydney from 2012 to 2016 as a member of Clover Moore's council team. His public positions consistently emphasised good governance, planning quality and social justice, and his local government work reflected the same concerns with the organisation of cities and the powers of councils.
Views
Mant's public life was guided by a lifelong commitment to good governance and social justice, and he emphasised the connection between sound governance and good results in public policy. His approach to cities combined legal expertise with planning practice, treating the organisation of institutions and the quality of urban places as closely related concerns.
Membership
Mant served two terms as president of the Paddington Society, a Sydney community body concerned with the heritage character and planning of the Paddington area. His presidency connected him with local advocacy on urban conservation and development, a theme that ran through his planning career.
He also took part in the Sydney University Players, a student theatre group associated with the University of Sydney, where he worked behind the scenes on the group's administration. This involvement reflected the theatre interests he pursued during his university years and afterward.
President (two terms)
Paddington Society
,
Australia
Administrator and business manager
Sydney University Players
,
Australia
Personality
A memorial tribute by a friend described him as a bright and witty companion, whose conversations included sharp observations about Sydney politics and a strong interest in classical music and opera.
Interests
Theatre, including his involvement with the Sydney University Players and volunteer work converting a former stables into the Nimrod Street Theatre in Kings Cross.
Music & Bands
Classical music and opera
Connections
Mant was the son of John Francis Mant, a Sydney solicitor and army officer who served in both world wars and was a founding member of the Liberal Party of Australia. His mother, Helen Mant, was a kindergarten teacher and the daughter of Justice John Harvey, former Chief Justice in Equity and foundation chair of Cranbrook School.
In his professional work he collaborated with Julie Walton on the rewriting and modernisation of the New South Wales Local Government Act. He also worked with Ian McKay, Robin Boyd and Hugh Stretton as co-authors of the 1971 book Living and Partly Living.
Father:
John Francis Mant
Solicitor who served as a lieutenant colonel and chief legal officer in the Australian Army during the Second World War and was a founding member of the Liberal Party of Australia.
Mother:
Helen Mant
Kindergarten teacher and daughter of Justice John Harvey, former Chief Justice in Equity and foundation chair of Cranbrook School.
Collegue :
Julie Walton
Worked with him on the rewriting and modernisation of the New South Wales Local Government Act.
References
Vale John Hayward Mant AM
City of Sydney Council minute by the Lord Mayor announcing his death on 10 July 2021 and summarising his career in law, politics, urban planning and public administration, and his council term from 2012 to 2016.
2021
John Mant remembered
Tribute describing his arts and law education at Sydney University, his planning diploma, his posts in South Australian and New South Wales government, and his principal legislative and planning contributions.
2021
John Hayward Mant 1936-2021 author biography
Author biography describing his expertise in planning law, housing policy and local government management, his advisory work for governments, his presidency of the Paddington Society and his proposed Better Places Act.
