Local government elections: Who will take on Newcastle mayor for the next four years?

The local government elections were pushed back to December thanks to Covid-19, but it gives us more of a chance to take a look at Newcastle’s mayoral candidates. Who will it be?

Local council elections may have been pushed back to December, but anticipation is building about who the Newcastle Mayor will be for the next four years.

Will incumbent Lord Mayor Nuatali Nelmes get another stint at the top job, or will a fresh face take the reins to lead Newcastle City Council?

We’ve done the leg work and put together all the details on the mayoral candidates for the upcoming 2021 elections.

What they stand for, what they’d like to see in the future, and what they can do better than their counterparts.

Supplied Editorial Newcastle City mayor Nuatali Nelmes. Picture: Supplied.

NUATALI NELMES

A well-known face of Newcastle, current Mayor Nuatali Nelmes has been a Labor councillor since 2008 and was elected to the top job in 2014 in a by-election, with the resignation of Mayor Jeff McCloy.

The 45-year-old mum-of-three is only the second female Lord Mayor of Newcastle after popular 1970s-era mayor Joy Cummings and is the youngest Lord Mayor of Newcastle.

Cr Nelmes is now keen to go another round as mayor, leading the Labor team with faithful deputy Declan Clausen by her side, and has a few priorities she’d like to focus on if granted her next tenure.

Lord Mayor Nelmes in her official robes. Picture by Peter Lorimer.

“Our priority will be to continue to deliver with commitments already funded including the renewal of Newcastle Ocean Baths and an inclusive playground at foreshore park, and Wallsend’s new $1.5 million dollar active hub.,” she said.

“As Lord Mayor I will continue to lead on environmental issues, such as introducing organic waste recycling, while promoting local jobs and diversifying our economy.”

She added that she’s proud of some of the things delivered across the city since in office, including leading advocacy to renew the CBD, several playground upgrades and involvement in Newcastle Airport’s upgrade and fixing Stockton erosion.

Also, achieving financial stability, protecting local jobs and saving local services from cuts and privatisation.

But being in the top job isn’t easy and with it comes controversy, Newcastle’s Labor and Independent councillors at the centre of an ongoing battle.

Cr Nelmes endorsed a statement recently put out by the Labor team following news Cr. Allan Robinson would leave the Independent party, calling for the resignation of both Cr. Robinson and Cr Church.

“Church is now encouraging Robinson to run for election as a ‘disendorsed’ Independent, while continuing to accept his vote on Council, and his preferences at the election,” said the statement from Newcastle Labor councillors.

“That’s not leadership. That’s not an acceptable solution.”

JOHN CHURCH - INDEPENDENT

Cr Church was first elected to council in 2017 and has been humbled to have served his community for the one term so far.

The born and bred Novocastrian, who holds a masters in business administration, wants to go one step better and snatch the mayor job from his Labor counterpart, and retain his seat in ward one.

“Ir would be a great honour and a privilege, this is one of the great cities in Australia and NSW a second city,” he said.

Supplied Editorial Independent Newcastle City councillor John Church. Picture: Supplied.

“We’re in a critical phase for Newcastle as it transform from it’s industrial heritage through to a very exciting and vibrant place to live, work, and play.

“There is so much promise, the city is in a good place, we just think it could be better.”

He’s eager to get politics out of local government and believes there’s a mood for change among the community.

“Having one political party in charge has created that division, because if you don’t agree with them, they fight with you, they bully you and they call you names,” Cr Church said.

“I think that’s not appropriate for the sort of council we need, people want us to get on with the job.”

His big platform, the financials of council.

“We think there has been an excessive rate increase over the last 5-6 years, revenue has increased 61 per cent since 2015 and we’re not seeing a commensurate increase in services, so we’d be proposing to freeze a further rate increase for at least 12 months while we have a look at the books,” he added.

“We believe council should live within its means and the community deserves to know with full transparency how that money is being spent.

“This is a council that has been more about spin and secrets rather than process and open governance.”

He’s hoping come December, it will be the reign of the Independents, with what he said is a great team behind him.

“Deeply committed, non-party aligned individuals that love their community and they just want to serve,” Cr Church commented.

“We have a previous deputy lord mayor on the ticket, Scott Sharpe, Sally Davies is a young professional lawyer, very engaged with her community, but in every ward we’ve identified very diverse engaged community candidates that simply want to get on with the job.”

Pushed back to December, Cr Church also wants to see Covid-19 safe election procedures put in place and looks forward to what initiatives the electoral commission can come up with.

JOHN MACKENZIE - GREENS

Dr MacKenzie has been a Newcastle councillor since 2017, and as a sole Greens councillor in chambers has been chipping away at some of the important topics.

“I’ve been proud of the achievements we’ve been able to make particularly climate action and urban planning but the work needs to continue and we need to take advantage of the work we have done, such as climate action, heritage and protecting our urban forest,” he said.

In particular affordable housing in Newcastle, which is at the height of crisis.

“We’ve got housing prices going up 10 per cent on average across the city driven by external forces,” Cr MacKenzie explained.

“A rental market which is almost non-existent and crisis accommodation services saying they’ve never seen it as bad as this.

“We’re really crying out for intervention from State and Federal governments to build more affordable and social housing but councils have a key role to play there as well, and we need councils to be providing the support to people that are finding themselves in precarious housing situations.”

Not one to get among the controversy, Cr MacKenzie said he tries to avoid the “squabble”, and feels if he were to become mayor, could offer cohesion among councillors.

“I think the most important thing that people want is a council which is looking at the issues and resolving them in the best interests of the people of Newcastle,” he said.

“I am happy to work with anyone in the chamber, I think everybody who is there represents the population and their voice has to be heard.

“The challenge is to find a way to get consensus among different positions, people want a council that includes the voices and gets on with the work.”

He’s hopeful the Greens can have a more dominant standing on council after the elections.

“We’re really excited about the prospect of having more than one green on council,” he laughed.

“It’s hard to be a lone voice particularly in a majority council, but we’ve worked hard to make sure our candidates are across the issues in each of their wards and we think we can provide a good circuit breaker in those positions.”

JENNY BARRIE - LIBERAL

Ms Barrie has been preselected as the mayoral candidate for the liberals, but is yet to be endorsed.

The mother and grandmother is a savvy business woman, who will hope to ensure the liberals retain their seat in ward two on Newcastle Council with the exit of current councillor Brad Luke.

She’s no stranger to the political scene, first becoming a Liberal candidate to contest the seat of Shortland in the 2016 Federal Election, which saw Pat Conroy take home.

Ms Barrie again tried her luck in the 2019 State Election, when she went up against Charlestown MP Jodi Harrison, but just couldn’t get the party across the line.