Sydney’s battlegrounds: The councils in play at this weekend’s elections

By Megan Gorrey

September 11, 2024 — 12.00pm

As voters go to the polls on Saturday, we explore what’s at stake in the NSW local government elections.See all 8 stories.

Hundreds of local council candidates are sharpening their polling booth pitches as more than 5 million NSW voters prepare to choose their local representatives this week.

Early voting centres are now open before elections for the state’s 128 councils on Saturday, September 14.

The polls will determine who controls the local governments responsible for roads, rates and rubbish for the next four years and could potentially shift the political dynamic across vast swaths of Sydney and NSW.

Here are five battles to watch:

City of Sydney

Independent Clover Moore, the polarising lord mayor who has overseen the council for 20 years, is again seeking to extend her grip on power at Sydney’s Town Hall for another four-year term.

Candidates hoping to topple Moore for the city’s top job include independent councillor Yvonne Weldon, the Greens’ Sylvie Ellsmore, Liberal Lyndon Gannon, and Labor newcomer Zann Maxwell.

Independent councillor and Indigenous leader Yvonne Weldon is again taking on Clover Moore for the mayoralty.Credit: Rhett Wyman

Moore was easily re-elected to the 10-person council in 2021 despite a 15 per cent drop in her primary vote. She is widely expected to be returned: the question is whether her team can retain five seats on the council – including Moore’s – if she holds on to the mayoralty.

Otherwise, they could be forced to negotiate for the first time.

If she wins a historic sixth term, the focus will inevitably turn to her succession plan.

Moore, 78, spoke in 2020 of her “strong, very talented team, any of whom could succeed me”, but former deputy mayor Jess Scully’s exit from the council in 2023 left her without an obvious successor. Former deputy mayor Jess Miller also returns to Moore’s ticket this election.

Inner West

Labor holds the majority in the progressive inner-city electorate created by the former Coalition state government’s forced amalgamation of Marrickville, Ashfield and Leichhardt councils in 2016.

However, it wouldn’t take many votes to loosen the party’s grip on power at this year’s poll.

Labor has eight councillors, including Mayor Darcy Byrne, on the 15-member council, alongside five Greens and two left-leaning independents. Labor and the Greens are running candidates in all five wards, while the Liberal Party has candidates in each ward except Marrickville.

The Inner West Council’s Labor Mayor Darcy Byrne is running again, but the party could lose its majority.Credit: Dean Sewell

Independent Pauline Lockie, a vocal critic of the WestConnex motorway, and the Greens’ Marghanita Da Cruz and Kobi Shetty, who is also Balmain MP, are among the outgoing councillors.

Most residents voted to return to the three former councils in a 2021 referendum, however Local Government Minister Ron Hoenig rejected the council’s demerger proposal in March.

City of Parramatta

Labor and Liberal candidates will battle it out in all five wards to win a seat on the 15-member council that governs Sydney’s fast-growing second commercial business district in the city’s west.

The Liberals’ decision not to endorse candidates in Parramatta at the last election helped the conservative Our Local Community Party, led by councillor Michelle Garrard, win four seats.

It also cleared a path for a progressive majority on the council, formed by seven Labor councillors, Greens councillor Phil Bradley and independent Kellie Darley.

As a result, the councils had a succession of Labor mayors, including Donna Davis, who resigned when elected as Parramatta MP last year, Sameer Pandey, and outgoing Mayor Pierre Esber.

City of Parramatta councillor Kellie Darley.Credit: Community Champions

Parramatta was unscathed by the Liberals’ nominations debacle. However, the return of endorsed candidates in all five wards could significantly alter the council’s composition.

Darley has formed the Community Champions group, whose candidates include Justin Mulder, the mayor’s former chief of staff.

Northern Beaches

The council was among the hardest hit by the NSW Liberal Party’s nominations debacle, which meant the party didn’t nominate a single candidate for the suburbs from Manly to Palm Beach.

The Liberals were banking on the party seizing control of the blue-ribbon area at this weekend’s election, which was expected to deliver the mayoralty to sitting councillor Georgia Ryburn.

Instead, Ryburn will be among several Liberals kicked off the council, and the party will be plunged into uncharted territory after it failed to meet the official deadline for council nominations.

The current 15-member council has five Liberal councillors and five Your Northern Beaches Independents. There are also two Greens and two other independents. Your Northern Beaches Independents, including former mayor Michael Regan, who stepped down when elected Warringah MP in 2023, and current Mayor Sue Heins, have held the mayoralty since 2017.

The Liberals’ catastrophic mistake will likely funnel extra votes to candidates from Your Northern Beaches Independents, who are running in all five wards, and the Greens, contesting the poll in four wards. There are Labor candidates in three wards.

Liberal Party member Mandeep Singh will run as an independent, after he submitted his own nomination paperwork.

Mandeep Singh made the rookie error of submitting his own for forms to run for council. It paid off for him.Credit: Louise Kennerley

North Sydney

The next mayor of North Sydney is expected to cut the ribbon on the council’s overhauled $89 million-plus Olympic swimming pool next year following a trouble-plagued redevelopment.

It’s arguably a dubious honour – the project was due to be completed in late 2022.

Incumbent Mayor Zoe Baker, a critic of former mayor Jilly Gibson’s handling of the pool project, is running again in the St Leonards ward, where she is against another independent councillor, prominent businessman and entrepreneur James Spenceley.

North Sydney Mayor Zoe Baker (left) pictured with fellow councillor MaryAnn Beregi consistently raised concerns about the North Sydney Olympic Pool redevelopment.Credit: Nick Moir

The bigger battle will be thrashed out in the Cammeraygal ward, where Baker’s fellow Real Independents North Sydney councillor MaryAnn Beregi faces a crowded field, many with Liberal Party links.

Gibson is departing after 25 years on the council. She stormed out of her final council meeting, declaring her colleagues were the “meanest council ever” as they couldn’t “find it in their hearts” to name a plaza in her honour.

But her legacy could live on. She is endorsing lawyer Pallavi Sinha, a Liberal Party member, who is leading a group of independents touting themselves on social media as Team Jilly. Another Liberal, Peter Noble, is also running as an independent. The Liberals – who were absent in 2021 – have endorsed Jessica Keen, a former councillor. Angus Hoy is top of the ticket for the Greens.

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The Sydney Morning Herald