Mixed bag for Labor and the rise of the Libertarians: the key surprises in the NSW local elections
The counting of votes has resumed to determine the makeup of New South Wales’s 128 councils for the next four years.
The main story of the local government elections was the Liberal party’s disastrous failure to lodge the paperwork to nominate more than a third of its candidates.
But there have been a few other surprises, even though the NSW Electoral Commission won’t declare the final results until the start of October. Here are some of them:
Greens and Labor battle for Byron
As of Monday, the Greens councillor Sarah Ndiaye had a good chance of winning the mayorship in the Byron shire on the state’s north coast after the independent mayor, Michael Lyon, was charged with assault and stalking.
Lyon, who used to be a member of the Greens, was charged by police after an alleged domestic violence incident at a home in Byron Bay in August, with the matter before the courts. He has pleaded not guilty.
In 2021 Lyon secured a clear majority in the Byron mayoral race, with 23.74% of the primary votes. His vote slumped to 17.30% on Saturday’s election, turning the race into a contest between Ndiaye and Labor’s Asren Pugh.
The Greens local government spokesperson, Amanda Cohn, said the mayoral race would be tight.
A mixed bag for Labor
Over in Newcastle, the lord mayor, Nuatali Nelmes, is in real danger of losing her the top position and Labor’s council majority.
The independent Dr Ross Kerridge was leading the mayoral race on Monday morning with 33.4% of the primary vote, with Nelms on 31.97%.
Kerridge, a professor of medicine at the University of Newcastle, said his opponents had thought of him as a “silly, old eccentric old man shouting at clouds” and had only started taking him seriously in the last two weeks of the campaign.
Labor did very well in other areas such as Wollongong but had a mixed result overall.
The political strategist Kos Samaras, a former deputy campaign director for Victorian Labor, said the party was struggling in its traditional heartland in western Sydney and the Albanese government should be concerned about the next federal election.
“They do have an existing problem within diverse communities. Where Labor did stand diverse candidates they did really well,” said Samaras, who runs the consultancy RedBridge Group.
The NSW premier, Chris Minns, said he was taking the results “really seriously”. “It was a big win for independents and a massive wake-up call for major parties in NSW,” he said.
Liverpool mayor returns to power amid corruption inquiry
In Liverpool, the Liberal mayor, Ned Mannoun, looks set to be re-elected.
The council came close to being sacked immediately before the election after a report by the Office of Local Government that detailed corruption allegations.
Liverpool council will be subject to an inquiry into corruption and maladministration after unsuccessful legal action.
Despite this, Mannoun won 43.83% of primary votes at the initial count, leading the Labor mayoral candidate and councillor, Betty Green, who had 26.21% of the votes.
Mannoun has rejected claims of corruption as “hearsay”. He told Guardian Australia on Monday the report was based on “disgruntled staff members” whom he accused of running a campaign against him.
Liberals likely to retain mayorship in Hornsby after ousting Philip Ruddock
The Liberal councillor Warren Waddell was on track on Monday to win the mayorship of Hornsby in northern Sydney after fending of a challenge from the independent Nathan Tilbury.
As of Monday he had secured 40.59% of the primary vote compared with Tilbury’s 18.34%.
The outgoing Hornsby mayor, Philip Ruddock, a former federal Liberal minister, lost a preselection battle to Waddell by 60 votes in August.
Related: NSW Liberals deny party in ‘stuff-up spiral’ after Rob Stokes declines role cleaning up state branch
The 81-year-old claimed property developers, supported by people within his own party, were behind a “professional campaign” to oust him.
The rise of the Libertarians
As Guardian Australia reported on Monday, the Libertarian party could have up to 15 councillors across the state and take control of MidCoast, a major regional council, after the Liberal party’s failure to nominate more than 100 candidates.
John Ruddick, NSW’s sole Libertarian MP, attributed some of his party’s success to the Liberals’ mistake, particularly in Camden, Canterbury-Bankstown and Penrith.
The rightwing minor party ran more candidates across NSW than any other party outside Labor, Liberal and the Greens, Ben Raue wrote in Guardian Australia on Sunday. In wards where no Liberal was standing, the Libertarian appeared to have gained most of the Liberal vote.
Formerly known as the Liberal Democrats, the Libertarians were identified by Australian National University politics lecturer Assoc Prof Mark Chou as the “most significant fringe group” running in the elections.
• In Australia, the national family violence counselling service is on 1800 737 732. In the UK, call the national domestic abuse helpline on 0808 2000 247, or visit Women’s Aid. In the US, the domestic violence hotline is 1-800-799-SAFE (7233). Other international helplines may be found via www.befrienders.org.
