By Kishor Napier-Raman and Stephen Brook
After winning a record sixth term as lord mayor of Sydney at last month’s council elections, Clover Moore seemed less than impressed by her leadership rivals.
“I didn’t think any of the other candidates had anything to offer,” the 78-year-old Moore said, accusing the cast of wannabe mayors of lacking “fresh ideas”.
“There was a sense of real desperation about trying to get me out of Town Hall. That was expressed in the candidates’ forums, which I think were pretty nasty,” she said.
Labor’s Zann Maxwell is set for a new gig at Sydney Town Hall. Credit: Flavio Brancaleone
“No one really talked about fresh ideas or new policy, they were just attacking me. It was a pretty weird campaign, actually.”
But robbed of a working majority on council for the first time in her 20-year reign, Moore has been forced to negotiate with those rivals, and has cut a deal with Labor’s lord mayoral candidate Zann Maxwell to make him her deputy, according to multiple sources familiar with the talks.
While both Labor and the Greens finished with two spots on the nine-person council to Team Clover’s four (including Moore), Maxwell who finished a distant second in the mayoral race, got the nod.
Clover Moore on election day last month. Credit: AAP
It wasn’t all that long ago when Moore was warning about her policies and projects being put at risk if either of the major parties gained control of Town Hall. So no surprises that the Greens aren’t thrilled that Moore snubbed them for one of the major parties, particularly when their own mayoral candidate Sylvie Ellsmore (who finished third) had already served a year as Clover’s deputy during the last term of council.
“It is a surprise, given that the mayor expressed so much concern about Labor or Liberal getting control of Town Hall,” Ellsmore said of the deal.
But Moore told CBD she looked forward to working with all councillors regardless of their political background or affiliation.
“Despite the breadth of political spectrum on council and a sometimes-bruising election campaign, it’s clear we all share the desire for an economically, culturally, environmentally and socially sustainable city,” she said.
LETTUCE REJOICE
As foreshadowed by CBD, the Right Honourable Liz Truss graced the nation’s capital on Tuesday and experienced all the Canberra highlights: Question Time, a meeting with Opposition Leader Peter Dutton, dinner with a group of like-minded Coalition MPs and an interview with The Australian Financial Review.
Truss slipped into Question Time, seated on the floor of the chamber as befits her British prime ministerial status.
She was warmly greeted by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese. But much like her premiership, she didn’t last the distance, and escaped the chamber after about half an hour.
Truss met Dutton at his Parliament House office where the opposition leader deployed an appropriate boss move, displaying the painting “Cap D’Antibes” - painted by the one and only Sir Winston Churchill, one of Truss’s more notable predecessors.
Churchill gifted it to former prime minister Robert Menzies in 1955 and his estate bequeathed it to the Australian parliament in 1982.
The painting has had several homes over the years - at Old Parliament House and other galleries. But it has found favour in the offices of some but not all Coalition leaders in that time: John Howard, Tony Abbott and Dutton.
Former UK prime minister Liz Truss at Parliament House in Canberra. Credit: Alex Ellinghausen
Last night, it fell to a group of Coalition MPs (not, it must be said, the opposition leader) to take Truss out for some good old Canberra hospitality, in the salubrious confines of the Parliament House private dining room. Chairman and Yip probably doesn’t stack up to London’s culinary offerings.
As CBD went to press ahead of the dinner, guests were set to include deputy Liberal leader Sussan Ley, shadow treasurer Angus Taylor, and fellow Coalition frontbenchers James Paterson, Jacinta Nampijinpa Price and Keith Pitt.
Who knows if Truss managed to furnish them with a copy of her new book, Ten Years to Save the West.
But if they front up in Sydney on Thursday evening and pay $29.95, they will get a signed copy at the official book launch, presided over by Truss friend and former Australian prime minister Tony Abbott.
“Yes, that’s right! Two former prime ministers together discussing perhaps the most important issue of our time,” CPAC founder Andrew Cooper told his members, who can attend the shindig for free.
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