Last week I wrote an analysis piece about the different shape of ballot papers in different parts of New South Wales – the urban areas and some large rural councils have above-the-line voting, small rural councils have a single column of ungrouped candidates, and there are some councils in between with a transitional mode.
I wanted to understand a bit more about below-the-line voting, at least in the places where a “line” exists.
If a council in New South Wales wants to change the number of councillors who sit on that council, they need to hold a referendum, with voters making the final decision.
Most candidates running in the NSW council elections are independents, or belong to the three big urban parties.
Over 58% of candidates running for the council election are either independent or unaffiliated. 14% of candidates were nominated by the ALP, 9.9% by the Greens, and 7.3% by the Liberal Party.
This leaves 435 candidates – 10.8% of the total – running for registered parties outside of those big three, and that’s the topic of this blog post.
We’re now less than two months out from the Queensland state election, and the ACT election. So it seemed about the right time to unlock those election guides for everyone to read.
But while that means two less exclusive benefits for Patreon donors, I’m launching something else that I think Patreon members will appreciate.
The Australian Electoral Commission yesterday announced the final decision for the federal redistributions in Victoria and Western Australia.
Unfortunately the AEC hasn’t yet published the maps, digital boundary files or data matching each SA1 to each electorate. While it may be possible to estimate these, I don’t have capacity with all of the elections going on now.
Ben is joined by the Sydney Morning Herald urban affairs reporter Anthony Segaert to preview the upcoming New South Wales local government elections. We discuss some of the most interesting elections, the impact of the NSW Liberal absence and local party systems.
Sorry for the poor quality audio on my end – it seems like the recording connected to the wrong mic. Should still be clear enough.
When the NSW Minister for Local Government, Ron Hoenig, announced an inquiry into the City of Liverpool in July, it seemed clear that the council was headed down the path seen by councils like Shellharbour, Warringah, Wingecarribee, Wollongong and Central Coast in the past. In the dying days of a council term, the state government intervenes and sacks the council, appoints administrators and delays the election.
NSW local government elections are conducted using single transferable vote proportional representation, but the actual shape of the ballot paper differs depending on who runs, and whether they run as a group.
After the Country Liberal Party clinched victory over the Greens in the seat of Fannie Bay, the Greens have surprisingly won the neighbouring seat of Nightcliff over former Labor chief minister Natasha Fyles.
The NTEC has only now conducted a preferential count between Labor and the Greens, seemingly with all primary votes now added to the count. With all of those distributed, the Greens beat Labor by 42 votes.
Voters in ten NSW local councils won’t just be electing councillors this month, but will also be voting on questions put on the ballot by their council. In eight councils, they’ll be considering binding referendums that would change the council’s constitution. In two other councils there will be non-binding polls (or plebiscites) on policy issues. There are 14 distinct questions across those ten councils.