Local government elections 2024: Clover Moore stands for 6th time; hidden Libs emerge
Millions of voters will go to the polls in 128 different councils today. Some will have no Liberal candidates to vote; while in Sydney, Clover Moore is seeking a record sixth term as mayor.
NSW
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Clover Moore could lose her majority stranglehold on the City of Sydney, with the 78-year-old Lord Mayor’s opponents sensing an “anti-Clover sentiment” on the ground after 20 years of her reign.
The City of Sydney contest – where Ms Moore is seeking a record sixth term – will be one of the most significant local government elections across NSW today, with millions of voters going to the polls in 128 different councils.
In eight of those councils, the Liberal Party will be completely absent, after the catastrophic failure to nominate almost 140 candidates by deadline.
The snafu – over which the state director was sacked and the federal party dramatically took over the state division – is likely to deliver Labor one-party majority in Blue Mountains, Campbelltown, Wollongong, Cessnock, and Penrith councils.
Camden, Lane Cove, and Northern Beaches are on track for a progressive majority rule. Other conservative parties could benefit in Mid-Coast and Shoalhaven, while the Liberals could be reduced to third party status in Georges River and Maitland.
Those predictions came from election analyst Ben Raue, who has assessed the impact of the Liberals’ nomination failure across the state.
“This issue will significantly change how the election will run in many of the biggest councils in NSW,” he said.
While there is a dearth of Liberal candidates in some 16 councils, a comedy of errors has seen multiple hidden Liberal candidates running for council as independents. These card-carrying Liberal members are running unendorsed by their party because they all submitted their own forms.
Some candidates put in their own forms after having suspicions the party would fail to do so. Others only did so by mistake.
In the Maitland LGA, former deputy mayor Mitchell Griffin managed to submit his own form, and those of two other Liberals on his ticket, just 20 minutes before the cut-off time. Now the three will run as independents.
Mr Griffin, who is seeking a third council term, decided to submit his own forms at the last minute when realised something was going wrong at Liberal HQ.
“I had spoken to them the night before and couldn’t get a straight answer out of them if our forms had been submitted or not,” he said.
“We had to get all the campaign material reprinted with any reference to the Liberal Party taken out … we can’t identify ourselves as Liberals.”
On The Central Coast, Liberal HQ failed to get the nominations in for the Budgewoi ward. Former Liberal mayor Douglas Eaton saw the writing on the wall and got in his own nomination to run as an independent.
“I couldn’t get any sense from head office, so I did it myself,” he said.
Under the rules as an independent he is only allowed to say he has “Liberal values” on his campaign material.
Other Liberal members are running as independents because the party initially refused to endorse them.
In North Sydney, partially affected by the nomination fiasco, Pallavi Sinha has been granted a waiver by the party to run as an independent alongside Liberal Party member Strephon Billinghurst. Liberal sources say she and Mr Billinghurst were originally forced out of the endorsement process due to factional issues.
Striking out on her own, Ms Sinha said she was still campaigning as a conservative candidate.
“This includes advocating to bring back Australia Day citizenship ceremonies, and better economic and project management,” she said.
On the northern beaches, Pittwater cafe owner Mandeep Singh is the last Liberal standing – entirely by accident. He is running as an independent after he accidentally lodged his own nomination forms, not realising the party was supposed to do so on his behalf.
Mr Singh, who had to destroy his Liberal-branded campaign material under NSW Electoral Commission rules, said the move to independent cost nearly $5000 in discarded materials.
“I spent $4900 printing the last materials,” he said.
“I didn’t really want to spend that money again.”
The City of Sydney was unaffected by the Liberal Party’s candidate debacle.
While Ms Moore is almost certainly going to retain the mayoralty, she could lose her majority rule over the council.
“There’s definitely a mood for change on the ground,” Liberal candidate Lyndon Gannon said.
Labor campaigners have also reported an “anti-Clover” sentiment on the ground, assisted by recent council failures on asbestos-riddled parks and missed rubbish collections.
In an extraordinary pre-election stuff-up, residents in Erskineville and Darlinghurst complained that the council failed to collect recycling bins this week, just days before the election.
Ms Moore on Friday sensationally accused the major parties of coming together to “try some new trick to snatch town hall” by encouraging voters to preference rival parties over Ms Moore’s own “independent team”.
Despite declining to confirm whether this would be her last term if elected, Ms Moore said she was fearful of a leadership change.
“Part of my decision to run for re-election was driven by the fear our policies and projects would be put at risk if Town Hall falls into the hands of the major parties,” she said.
Meanwhile, Labor is bracing for an electoral hit of its own. Labor operatives told The Saturday Telegraph they had picked up on a lot of anger directed towards the federal Albanese government.
In Western Sydney, Labor expects to cop a big hit among Islamic voters angry with the federal government’s stance on the war in Gaza.
In other areas, campaigners believe cost-of-living concerns will harm Labor’s vote.
Follow all the latest election news at dailytelegraph.com.au
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