- The Guardian
- Issue #2119
Local government elections have just been held across New South Wales and many seats remain undecided. The biggest controversy was the failure of the Liberal Party machine in NSW to nominate hundreds of their candidates on time, much to Labor’s delight. Unfortunately, most of the Liberal candidates that failed to nominate were in traditional safe Liberal seats and have been replaced by the even more conservative Libertarian Party.
In the five wards of Cumberland Council, Labor appear to have lost 2 Councillors including the incumbent Mayor Lisa Lake who appears to be replaced by a newly elected Greens Councillor in Wentworthville Ward. In the 2021 Local Council elections the Liberals did not endorse candidates for Cumberland Council, with some running as Liberal Independents. The Liberals have won 3 seats on the new Council with a potential fourth seat in Regents Park Ward where preferences are yet to be counted.
The stand out is South Granville Ward which covers a large part of the former Auburn Council area and has a large Middle Eastern population. No candidate has achieved a full quota yet. What is clear is that former disgraced Auburn Councillors standing as Independent and Liberal candidates will not make up the new Council. It’s not clear yet if Labor and Liberal Party support for Israel had a big impact on the way people voted. Most candidates, including those from Arabic and Muslim backgrounds did not publicly declare support for Palestine and the small number that did respond to campaigns like the Vote Yes for Palestine didn’t see an increase in their vote.
The Battler, an alliance of Left and progressive residents in the Cumberland Local Government area organised two tickets in the elections, Regents Park and South Granville Wards with the team in Regents Park Ward polling 1,174 votes at last count with approximately 7.15 per cent of the vote. The Battler last ran in the 2017 Council elections where it polled 1,595 votes and had a Councillor on the former Auburn Council from 2012 – 2015.
The former Auburn Council, Holroyd Council and the Woodville Ward of Parramatta Council were part of a forced merger to form what is now the Cumberland Council initiated by the Baird Liberal government in 2016. The council has been corporatised. The amalgamation has made it more difficult for local grass roots organisations to have residents elected to Council. The number of Councillors to be elected in each ward was reduced, and the number of votes required to get elected has more than doubled.
The Battler campaign focused mainly on local specific issues, like the closure of the Auburn Post Office (an important service for the most ethnically diverse suburb in Australia). The Battler campaigned in Lidcombe to convert the now-abandoned Sydney University Health Sciences Campus on East St into a secondary and public school, a better use of our public resources. In Berala, the Battler campaigned to have the suburb removed from the State Government Rezoning (TOD) where heights would increase to six storeys high 400 metres from the railway station despite Transport NSW admitting the local infrastructure did not support an increase in population.
The Battler campaign was run on a shoe string budget in comparison to the big budgets of most other candidates, particularly the major parties who spent tens of thousands on direct mail outs and paid booth workers. The Battler relied on volunteers, and our campaign went to the streets with stalls and leafleting railway stations, mass letterboxing and door knocking.
The big difference in our campaign is that it doesn’t stop with the polling day and it will continue up until the next Council elections in fighting for concrete outcomes for local residents. Our message has a real difference because we don’t claim that we achieve anything on our own. Its only together as a community we can go forward. Together we are better.
