Jeff Briscoe to team up with Louise Elliot at next Hobart council election

A long-serving Hobart alderman is throwing his weight behind a brash newcomer who wants to be Lord Mayor saying there needs to be change at the top.

A long-serving Hobart alderman is throwing his weight behind a brash newcomer who wants to be Lord Mayor saying there needs to be change at the top.

Jeff Briscoe, who has been on the Hobart City Council for 28 years, will run as deputy on a joint ticket with Louise Elliot, a small business owner and housing advocate who will stand for Lord Mayor.

Mr Briscoe said he was impressed with Ms Elliot’s “energy and enthusiasm” and believed ratepayers wanted a change.

“It’s (council) certainly not working as a team,” he said.

“In the last six months everywhere I go, including to sporting and community groups, people tell me ‘she’s (Anna Reynolds) got to go’.

“We need a change in leadership.

“Louise will be another Sue Hickey (former Lord Mayor) because she is very dynamic and hardworking and has a respected background in HR.”

Ms Elliot said she had been debating for months about whether to run for the city’s top job and had decided to “bite the bullet”.

Breaking News Breaking News Louise Elliot and Jeff Briscoe. Picture: Kenji Sato

“I love this city too much and the council is in a very precarious position and needs to get back to the basics such as better footpaths and facilities,” she said.

“We have storm water that still uses convict bricks and with climate change that is just not acceptable.

“Climate change is important to my generation, especially with young children, and part of our plan is to not only reduce our impact on the environment, but to make sure Hobart is prepared for change.

“With cost of living pressures we need to get excellent value for ratepayers and to make commonsense decisions.”

Ms Elliot said she would be the “underdog” in the campaign to unseat Ms Reynolds who was first elected to council in 2014 and became mayor in 2018.

“I had a cancer experience six years and was given only a 20 to 30 per cent chance of living,” she said.

“When you have your own mortality shoved in your face you want to leave the world a better place, however small that is.”

Louise Elliot has complied a list of the most anti-development members of Hobart City Council. Picture: Nikki Davis-Jones

Ms Elliot had cancer of the ureter, a kidney removed and chemotherapy but the mother of two young children says she is fully recovered.

She said she was pleased to have Mr Briscoe as her running mate.

“I am really pleased to have Jeff on my side as a very experienced and sensible councillor, respected teacher and a person of high integrity,” Ms Elliot said.

Mr Briscoe said Ms Elliot’s “generation needs to be better represented in positions of responsibility”.

There is no love lost between Ms Elliot and Ms Reynolds.

Ms Reynolds recently apologised to Ms Elliot after a public meeting on the University of Tasmania’s move into the CBD after an altercation but disputed Ms Elliot’s version of what happened.

She also said she regretted using the word “bulls…” to Ms Elliot which Ms Reynolds said was “unnecessary and inappropriate”.