He loves beer and watching the footy, and wants your council vote

In Ward Games, we would like to raise a glass to the trees being felled to make way for the reams of council electoral material currently landing in letterboxes. Vale.

Happy days for the printers, however. Keep banking those fat stacks of paper – it’s your time to shine (but please recycle).

As always, our inboxes are open to any gossip, scuttlebutt and innuendo.

Send us an email: [e-mail] and [e-mail].

VOTE #1 BEER

Now here’s a candidate most of Victoria can get behind.

While other wannabe councillors have written long and earnest statements for the Victorian Electoral Commission to send to voters, James Talbett has gone with something much simpler.

The electoral statement of Yarra Ranges Shire council candidate James Talbett.Credit: Twitter/@Sarah_Haar_

The candidate for Yarra Ranges Shire has a manifesto that states: “My policies include having a beer and watching the football.”

Stop the count, no need for the ABC’s Antony Green, as Talbett has 100 per cent of the vote!

Well, maybe not. But Talbett certainly did get the attention of eagle-eyed election watchers online. In the words of one voter who posted a pic of his statement on X: “Am I having a stroke?”

No, it’s legit. We called the man in question, who told us he moved to Yarra Ranges six years ago and, well, he likes beer.

Candidate James Talbett says if elected to Yarra Ranges Council, he’d take the job seriously.

We’ve established his bev of choice is an XPA, and his footy teams are Hawthorn, Melbourne Victory and Celtic.

But the mulleted 44-year-old, speaking to The Age while walking his mastiff-cross Diesel, said he wasn’t literally intending to sink tins in the council chambers, and his statement was meant “more as a vibe”.

His tilt at council was a “bucket list item”, he said. (Is it just us or is that curly mullet a bit Toadfish Rebecchi?)

“A lot of these candidate statements, they list things that aren’t council’s responsibility. My statement was the opposite of that. It wasn’t promising something I can’t deliver,” Talbett said.

The former union delegate has no advertising or corflutes around O’Shannassy ward, which covers Yarra Junction, Woori Yallock and Warburton.

“I spent the whole budget on the [$250] nomination fee,” he said.

Talbett is also openly a member of the Labor Party, but not an endorsed candidate.

“I’m not sure they [Labor HQ] would have approved of the way I did [my candidate statement],” he said.

Talbett’s phone rang hot at the weekend after his statement went out in the post.

“I’m not expecting to get close to winning, but if somehow that happened, I would take it seriously and do the job to the best of my ability,” he said.

GREEN REVENGE

Things are getting curiouser and curiouser in the Darebin wonderland. Two candidates have a little bit of – how shall we put this? – history with each other.

Readers inside the inner north’s tofu curtain may remember the civil war that erupted within the Greens after the 2018 federal byelection in the federal seat of Batman (now Cooper) when Alex Bhathal lost to Labor’s Ged Kearney.

Alex Bhathal’s election material in the City of Darebin. She is running against Greens councillor Susanne Newton.

Bhathal’s campaign was derailed when a 101-page internal document accusing her of bullying was leaked to the media.

Bhathal repeatedly rejected any suggestion she behaved inappropriately and after six unsuccessful attempts at the seat, she left the Greens in 2019 saying she was subjected to “relentless organisational bullying”. The Greens in 2018 apologised to her over the way the party handled the bullying complaint. The party found no wrongdoing on her part.

Among the 18 party members who signed the dossier calling for Bhathal’s disendorsement and expulsion were Darebin’s current sitting Greens councillors, Trent McCarthy and Susanne Newton.

Darebin councillor Susanne Newton from the Greens.

McCarthy is not recontesting this election but Newton, who has just finished her term as mayor, is running again. And who should be one of her opponents? Dun dun duunnn – it’s Bhathal.

Talk about revenge best served cold.

When contacted by The Age, Bhathal cited issues such as poor maintenance of nearby creeks and the lack of a 50-metre pool in Reservoir as reasons she was taking on Newton, rather than focus on her loss in 2018.

“It’s not about what happened [to me] – it’s about the needs and interests of our community,” she said.

An anti-Newton flyer in Darebin. The flyer features ex-Greens Bhathal (centre) and Leon Zembekis (right).

Labelling herself a “green independent”, Bhathal is part of a group called the Darebin Progressive Independents Network.

Interestingly, Bhathal has chosen not to run where she lives but has instead nominated for Newton’s West ward, which takes in Reservoir and Preston.

Newton’s on-the-record response was equally non-committal, saying she was happy more women were involved.

“It’s great to see someone who spent so much time campaigning for federal politics decide to throw their hat in the ring for local politics,” she said.

All water under the bridge, hey?

Perhaps, although an anti-Newton flyer is circulating in the area featuring Bhathal and former Greens member Leon Zembekis, who was recently expelled from the party.

Zembekis was very open about wanting Newton out. “I think it would be the best thing for the community that she loses,” he said.

Bhathal is also sending preferences to Labor’s Connie Boglis over Newton. Watch this space.

HARD LABOR

Speaking of comrade-on-comrade stoushes, here’s one on the Labor side of politics.

Stephen Donnelly and Kos Samaras, two long-time Labor backroom operators who ran Daniel Andrews’ campaigns, are going head-to-head helping the big players in Melbourne’s lord mayoral race.

Kos Samaras is helping Arron Wood in his run for Melbourne lord mayor.Credit: Wayne Taylor

In Nick Reece’s corner, wearing the red trunks, is Donnelly, Team Nick’s campaign manager and founder of the Dunn Street consultancy. As ALP state secretary, he was involved in Labor’s infamous red shirts scheme.

On the opposite side of the ring with mayoral aspirant Arron Wood, in a different shade of red trunks, is Samaras, also a former assistant state secretary and now a pollster with Redbridge.

The Age has confirmed that Wood has hired Samaras to conduct “quantitative and qualitative” research (that means polling). We would love to know what it says.

IT WASN’T ME

Column regulars may recall our coverage of the “shit sheet” bonanza taking place in the City of Stonnington.

One piece of literature was a “report card”, which marked Jami Klisaris an F for her time on the council (she is locked in a fierce battle with Mayor Joe Gianfriddo).

The document was authorised by someone with the name K Norling and listed a PO Box in Elwood. Well, Ken Norling got in touch via email at the weekend to rule themselves out.

“As the only K.Norling in Melbourne (to my knowledge) I felt I should respond,” he wrote. “If anyone is distributing fliers with my name on them, the matter should be reported to the VEC.”

The Age believes it’s likely the name K Norling used to authorise the document is a pseudonym.

The net tightens.

Postal packs for Victoria’s council elections were mailed last week and voting is required by 6pm on Friday, October 25.