Full list: final results for north shore council election results
After more than two weeks of counting, the final results from the December 4 local government election have been revealed.
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After more than two weeks of counting, the make up of local councils across the north shore has been revealed.
The NSW Electoral Commission has finalised results from the December 4 poll after an anxious wait for candidates who stood for election.
In North Sydney, five sitting councillors have been re-elected including Zoe Baker, Jilly Gibson, Ian Mutton, MaryAnn Beregi and Alanya Drummond.
They will join five new councillors including William Bourke, Shannon Welch and James Spenceley.
In a major coup for the party, Sustainable Australia – Stop Overdevelopment has also secured two of the 10 council seats – the first time the party has been elected at any level of government in NSW.
Party founder William Bourke will represent the St Leonards ward and Georgia Lamb, a 20-year-old university student, will represent the Cammeraygal ward.
Mr Bourke, who unsuccessfully stood for an upper house seat at the last state election, partly attributed the result in North Sydney to development fatigue among local voters.
“This is the first time we’ve run at a council level because we felt that’s where a lot of planning and environmental decisions are made and I think the new council needs to better represent the community,” he said.
“People are looking at the towers marching down the Pacific Hwy from Chatswood to St Leonards and seeing the complete destruction of their neighbourhood – it’s a bomb site.
“We always thought we had a 50-50 chance to get elected and it’s fantastic to have a young woman also elected - to have that young female voice is something that’s been missing.”
The party, which currently has one upper house seat in Victoria, ran on a platform of stopping overdevelopment, stopping corruption and protecting the environment
Mr Bourke said that while the party has often been viewed ainted as anti-immigration, he said its policy was focused on reducing Australia’s immigration intake to sustainable levels.
“The idea we’re anti-immigration is a politically motivated smear, mainly from the left and also the commercial right,” he said.
“Sustainable Australia is a pro-immigration, pro-refugee party. We simply want to lower the immigration intake to 70,000.”
With votes now finalised, all eyes turn to the mayoral contest which is due to be determined by the majority vote of councillors at a meeting January 10.
Jilly Gibson, who has served as North Sydney’s mayor since 2012, has confirmed her intention to stand for the position and faces a challenge from sitting independent councillor Zoe Baker.
Ms Baker said she was focused on bringing “true independent representation” back to the council chambers.
“When you look at the vote, I think there has been a very big rejection of the majority position the previous council had taken on issues including overdevelopment, the Western Harbour Tunnel, transparency and participation,” she said.
Willoughby Council meanwhile has a new mayor with Tanya Taylor elected, replacing Gail Giles-Gidney who quit the position to run for the upcoming Willoughby state bi-election.
Five of the 12 councillor spots have been filled by return councillors including Craig Campbell, Hugh Eriksson, Angelo Rozos, Nic Wright and Brendon Zhu.
They join new candidates Anna Greco, Roy McCullagh, John Moratelli, Sarkis Mouradian, Georgie Roussac, Robert Samuel and Jam Xi.
In Mosman, mayor Carolyn Corrigan has been safely re-elected mayor with 43 per cent of the vote.
Of the six remaining councillor spots, four are returning councillors including Simon Menzies, Roy Bendall and Libby Moline.
Three candidates on Ms Corrigan’s Serving Mosman team have also been elected including Michael Randall, Sarah Hughes and Pip Friedrich.
In Ku-ring-gai, there is an equal mix of new and familiar faces with five new councillors joining five sitting councillors who stood for re-election.
Perhaps the biggest surprise is the absence of long-term councillor Jennifer Anderson who has not been re-elected after failing to pick up enough votes in the Roseville ward.
Ms Anderson last year clocked up the record as the council’s longest serving mayor before being replaced in the job in a mayoral challenge by Cedric Spencer in September.
The results follow a tumultuous lead up to polling day that had a series of council meetings called off after repeat absences from a bloc of five councillors.
Of those five councillors, two did not stand for re-election and of the remaining just one – Martin Smith – has been re-elected. Jennifer Anderson and Donna Greenfield both lost their seats.
Four of the five councillors from the bloc of councillors that did turn up to meetings have been re-elected including Christine Kay, Sam Ngai, Jeff Pettett and Cedric Spencer.
Mr Smith said he did not believe the series of postponed council meetings in the lead-up to election day played a major factor in the final results.
“I don’t think you can read too much into it but what I would say is there was a political campaign against Jennifer Anderson – we had a large group in the community who went after her and it didn’t help that our local MP had a crack at her one week before election day,” he said.
“We’ve lost a huge amount of experience and I think the next council will be interesting.”
Mr Smith said talks have already started among two groups of councillors in a contest for the coveted mayoral position.
“Unfortunately that divides the council pretty quickly but I’m hoping it’s a council where we can all come together – we’ve got to move forward for the interest of Ku-ring-gai,” he said.
The mayoralty will be determined by a majority vote of councillors at a meeting on January 11.
Voters have meanwhile delivered a major shake-up to Lane Cove Council with six new councillors making up the list of final nine elected.
There is an equal mix of three Liberal and three Labor councillors with two independents and a Green securing the final three seats.
Return councillors include Scott Bennison, David Brooks-Horn (both Liberal) and Andrew Zbik (Labor).
The Greens have also secured their first seat on the council since 2008 with candidate Rochelle Flood elected in the west ward.
Other new faces include independents Merri Southwood and Bridget Kennedy who both ran on platforms that included opposition to the use of synthetic turf on sporting fields.
Ms Flood believes voters in the region were seeking change.
“I think the community were really concerned about community consultation and lack of input into some of the decision making in the previous council,” she said.
“They’ve looked to the Greens and independents who are much more focused on grassroots issues.”
Scott Bennison, who has been re-elected for the Liberals, said he believes Labor will have the numbers to secure the mayoralty.
Based on the final results, Mr Bennison is not expecting natural turf on any local sporting field to be replaced with synthetic material over the coming years.
“Unfortunately I think they’ll blow that up and we’ll stick with the status quo to the detriment of local sporting clubs” he said.
KU-RING-GAI
- Christine Kay (Ind)
- Simon Lennon (Ind)
- Sam Ngai (Ind)
- Jeff Pettett (Ind)
- Martin Smith (Ind)
- Alec Taylor (Ind)
- Cedric Spencer (Ind)
- Greg Taylor (Ind)
- Barbara Ward (Ind)
- Kim Wheatley (Ind)
MOSMAN
- Carolyn Corrigan – Mayor (Serving Mosman)
- Simon Menzies (Ind)
- Roy Bendall (Ind)
- Michael Randall (Serving Mosman)
- Sarah Hughes (Serving Mosman)
- Pip Friedrich (Serving Mosman)
- Libby Moline (Ind)
NORTH SYDNEY
- Jilly Gibson (Ind)
- Ian Mutton (Ind)
- Shannon Welch (Labor)
- Georgia Lamb (Sustainable Australia)
- Maryann Beregi (Ind)
- James Spenceley (Ind)
- Godfrey Saunter (Labor)
- Zoe Baker (Ind)
- William Bourke (Sustainable Australia)
- Alanya Drummond (Ind)
LANE COVE
- Scott Bennison (Liberal)
- David Brooks-Horn (Liberal)
- Kathy Bryla (Labor)
- Rochelle Flood (Greens)
- Bridget Kennedy (Ind)
- Katherine Mort (Liberal)
- David Roenfeldt (Labor)
- Merri Southwood (Ind)
- Andrew Zbik (Labor)
WILLOUGHBY
- Tanya Taylor – Mayor (Ind)
- Robert Samuel (Ind)
- Sarkis Mouradian (Ind)
- Angelo Rozos (Ind)
- Georgie Roussac (Ind)
- Anna Greco (Ind)
- Nic Wright (Ind)
- Hugh Eriksson (Ind)
- Roy McCullagh (Ind)
- John Moratelli (Ind)
- Jam Xi (Ind)
- Craig Campbell (Ind)
- Brendon Zhu (Ind)
Swings and surprises as north shore election count continues
EARLIER
DECEMBER 7, 2021
Swings, tight contests and a large percentage of informal votes have emerged during early counting from council elections on Sydney’s north shore.
Candidates in the Ku-ring-gai, Lane Cove, Mosman, North Sydney and Willoughby Council regions have offered early insights into how they think local politics could play out over the next three years as results from Saturday’s local government elections continue to trickle in.
In Ku-ring-gai there was plenty of drama in the lead up to election day and the early count from the poll has thrown up some surprises.
At least five sitting councillors are not expected to return including Jennifer Anderson who served on the council for 15 years and last year became the longest serving mayor in its 104-year-old history.
Also not expected to return are sitting councillors Peter Kelly, who is polling last in the Gordon ward and Donna Greenfield who ran second on the Group B ticket in Wahroonga. Sitting councillors Cheryl Szatow and Callum Clarke did not stand for re-election.
Ms Anderson said she faced various hurdles leading into election day including
public criticism from Ku-ring-gai State MP Alister Henskens that came in the form of speech in parliament eight days before polling day.
“It does not look promising that I have been elected and I’m sure there are a combination of factors behind that,” Ms Anderson said.
“I think there was a rhetoric about a dysfunction of the council which seems to have had little attention placed on the facts and reality behind it.
“Coupled with that there have been sustained attacks from Mr Henskens on a number of issues.”
Ms Anderson said she was proud of her record on council and would continue to advocate for the community outside council on issues including protecting heritage from overdevelopment.
“I have always stood up for what our community wanted and didn’t blindly follow what the State Government told us to do on issues such as housing targets which the community was strongly opposed to,” she said.
“I definitely fear for the council because I can’t see a strong commitment apart from councillor Martin Smith on issues such as preserving our heritage.”
Current mayor Cedric Spencer, who is polling second in the Wahroonga ward, said it was too early to know exactly how the final results would determine the political makeup of the council in coming years.
He said public commentary around the recent stalemate at the council could have played a factor in voters seeking to challenge the status-quo.
“I honestly think (residents) were after change and in my time on council I have tried hard to deliver what ratepayers wanted because I’ve lived through their frustration,” he said.
Early results from Ku-ring-gai show sitting councillors Jeff Pettet, Sam Ngai and Martin Smith are on track to return alongside new candidate Barbara Ward. The remaining five spots are still up for grabs.
One of the tightest results on the north shore is the mayoral race in Willoughby where just 238 votes separated first time candidate Tanya Taylor and the council’s sitting deputy mayor Angelo Rozos as of Tuesday.
Ms Taylor, who is leading the count, is expected to secure the mayoralty under a preference deal with Craig Campbell who trails third in the three-candidate mayoral contest.
Ms Taylor, who ran on a pro-environment platform and campaigned against the Beaches Link Tunnel, said she was feeling “confident” with the early results.
“My platforms were fairly similar to Angelo and Craig’s but where I stand out is that I’m a true independent and not a member of any political party,” she said.
“I was the citizen of the year in 2020 and come from a strong community background and my focus will be to support and represent all residents in that regard.”
The early results from Willoughby show sitting councillors Nic Wright, Hugh Eriksson, Craig Campbell and Brendon Zhu are all expected to return alongside new candidates Georgie Roussac and John Moratelli. A total of 13 councillors will be elected.
Mr Rozos, who can still be elected as a councillor, said his intention in standing for mayor was to progress long-planned council projects and focus the council’s attention on local matters rather than State and Federal issues.
“I’m a big believer that local government should stick with the issues within its remit – I was going to be a mayor that may not always be popular but got things done to benefit the community,” he said.
Counting in North Sydney is meanwhile progressing at a snail’s pace with just 37 per cent of the vote counted as of Tuesday morning.
Early results are looking promising for sitting mayor Jilly Gibson, two Labor candidates Godfrey Santer and Shannon Welch, sitting councillors Zoe Baker and Maryann Beregi and new candidate James Spencer. The five remaining spots on the council are too close to call.
The early results also show strong support for the Sustainable Australia Party – Stop Overdevelopment which has attracted between nine and 12 per cent of the vote in the council’s two wards.
The eventual makeup of the council will be important to determine the mayoralty, which will be settled by the majority vote of councillors unlike previous elections when it was decided by voters on election ballots.
Zoe Baker, who is leading the early count in the St Leonards ward, said she was not expecting a clear picture of the final result until the last postal vote was counted which could take at least another 10 days.
Ms Gibson said she would be putting her hand up for re-election as mayor but is waiting for the final vote before making further comments.
Meanwhile in Mosman, current mayor Carolyn Corrigan looks to have cruised to victory with 42 per cent of the vote in the mayoral contest as of Tuesday morning.
With 40 per cent of ballots counted, Ms Corrigan said she was feeling hopeful but was waiting for more votes to be tallied before making an official statement.
Ms Corrigan’s Serving Mosman Group is leading the councillor vote ahead of Group B, led by Simon Menzies, Group C, led by Roy Bendall, Group E, led by Libby Moline and Group A, led by Sarah Harding.
In Lane Cove, 66 per cent of the vote had been counted as of Tuesday morning with early results showing an eight per cent swing to Labour and a five per cent to the Greens at the expense of the Liberals which have suffered a nine per cent swing against the party.
Councillors on track to return are David Brooks-Horn (Lib), Scott Bennison (Lib) and Andrew Zbik (Lab) alongside at least four new councillors including Katherine Mort (Lib), Kathy Bryla (Lab), Bridget Kennedy (Ind) and Merri Southwood (Ind).
Ms Kennedy, a first-time candidate, recorded the highest first preference vote of any candidate in the election and believes voters had an appetite for change.
“It’s looking like a much more progressive council and looks like we have a Greens councillor which shows issues like climate change are important to the community,” she said.
“There has been a strong independent movement and I think people want to be represented by councillors who are engaged in the community.”
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