‘On notice’: Greens fire starter’s gun in race for City Hall

The Queensland Greens are hoping to make history by playing a major role in ousting the largest remaining LNP government in mainland Australia within a year.

After the party built on growing support across Brisbane with three new federal MPs at last year’s election, its representative in the city’s namesake seat, Stephen Bates, has declared council is next.

Greens candidates Wendy Aghdam (Central), Michaela Sargent (Walter Taylor), Seal Chong Wah (Paddington) will vie for the three key Brisbane City Council seats in March next year.

The party announced its candidates in three key Brisbane wards on Sunday – with more to come – in the first major move by a political party ahead of statewide council elections to be held in March.

“The Greens made history in 2022, and we have the candidates and platform to do the same in 2024 in Brisbane City Council,” Bates said in a statement. “Last year’s federal election put the political class on notice.

“The choice ... will be between a tired and out of touch LNP, or the Greens, who are dedicated to working alongside everyday people to deliver a better future for all of us.”

At the 2020 election, Greens candidates gained more than 20 per cent of the primary vote across seven of the 26 wards making up the country’s largest council: one of their own, one held by Labor, and five held by the LNP.

Labor, consigned to the opposition benches for almost the past two decades and led by Jared Cassidy, holds just five wards. But it, too, is hoping to make waves against Lord Mayor Adrian Schrinner’s long-dominant LNP administration. Fourteen wards are needed for a majority.

The Greens, via outgoing Gabba councillor Jonathan Sriranganathan, along with independent Nicole Johnston, form the rest of an otherwise LNP-weighted council chamber representing 1.2 million residents and overseeing a $3 billion budget.

One of the tightest contests in 2020 was in Paddington, which was held by the LNP’s Peter Matic – who announced his retirement this month – after keeping his Greens challenger at bay by just 311 votes.

As part of Sunday’s announcement, the Greens named local artist and musician Seal Chong Wah as their 2024 candidate for Paddington, a ward that overlaps the federal seat of Ryan, which Elizabeth Watson-Brown won for the Greens last year, and the state electorate of Maiwar, held by the party’s Michael Berkman since 2017.

[Council] is responsible for many of the services we use and issues we encounter. It is incredibly powerful in shaping our community.

Greens Central candidate Wendy Aghdam

In the nearby Walter Taylor ward, which also overlaps those Greens-held state and federal seats, the party will run community development worker Michaela Sargent as its candidate for a second time.

Sargent managed an 11.8 per cent swing against first-time LNP candidate James Mackay in 2020, shattering his party’s margin. Mackay filled the previously safe seat after Julian Simmonds’ 2019 election to the federal seat of Ryan.

Success in either ward would cement the Greens’ foothold across all three levels of government beyond Brisbane’s inner south.

The party will also announce youth mental health nurse Wendy Aghdam as its challenger for Central ward, which spans the CBD and densely populated areas to the north.

Overlapping Bates’ federal seat, the ward has been held by the LNP’s Vicki Howard since 2012.