Greens candidate Phil Bradley secures spot on Parramatta Council after weekend’s election
OVERDEVELOPMENT is one of the key reasons Parramatta voters went looking for alternatives at the weekend’s local council elections. The Greens have secured a spot as a result of the voter snub.
Parramatta
Don't miss out on the headlines from Parramatta . Followed categories will be added to My News.
THE Greens will have its first representative on local council following the weekend’s City of Parramatta elections.
A second candidate in the Rosehill ward is too close to call. Chris James will have to wait for preferential votes to be distributed.
Phil Bradley said the historic win started with a strong increase in Greens primary votes across all wards. He said overdevelopment had pushed voters in his party’s direction.
Mr Bradley said he wasn’t anti-development, but said the 90 storey tower in the centre of Parramatta, the 50 storey towers originally proposed around the female factory were “clearly overdevelopments”.
“We haven’t even got light rail in areas that are already congested with traffic,” he said.
The turn towards the Greens as an alternative was echoed across the state, with the party likely to secure at least 29 seats from the weekend’s local council election.
The Greens secured 13.94% of the votes in the Parramatta ward securing Mr Bradley a spot. He said the big swing in his direction had a lot to do with voters being disillusioned and disgruntled.
He said “when you’ve got independents who were Liberal Party members not very long ago or are connected to developers ”, voters turn their nose up at it.
“And when they’re favouring developers rather than communities ... one obvious thing we’d like to see is, before we have massive unit and construction developments like we’re seeing, is the social infrastructure here.
“(Housing) prices are still extremely high ... the profitability of developers is so strong, we can achieve 15 per cent affordable housing in a new development and 30 per cent on public land developments and still have a fair profit for developers.”
Informal votes high in Cumberland
Mr Bradley said he’d be pushing arts and music as a continued centrepiece for Parramatta.
“We’ve done reasonably well in the past but I will be doing more lobbying,” he said.
He said Reconciliation in western Sydney, NAIDOC Day, Parramasala, Thai water festival and gay pride picnic as events that should continue to be highlighted and improved upon.
Mr Bradley said it could take up to a week to find out where the preferential votes go and the results of the closely contended Rosehill ward.
Suburbs where it’s cheaper to buy home than rent
Homes in many Sydney areas now cost $100 a week cheaper to own than rent after the latest rate cuts. See where buyers get the biggest savings
Trio allegedly plotted to cut off person’s ear, fingers: Court
Three men allegedly plotted to sever a man’s ear and fingers while holding him hostage but the kidnapping was foiled when cops swooped on the mask-clad trio in Sydney’s west, police claim.