Camden council election, 2024

Camden Council covers suburbs in the outer south-west of Sydney, including Camden, Narellan, Leppington, Catherine Field, Cobbitty, Elderslie, Harrington Park, Mount Annan and Smeaton Grange.

The council has a rapidly growing population. The population was 78,218 at the time of the 2016 census but is estimated to be 127,806 as of 2022.

• Wards
• Redistribution
• Incumbent councillors
• History
• Council control
• Candidate summary
• Assessment
• 2021 results
• Vote breakdown by ward
• Results maps

Wards
Camden Council is divided into three wards.

The Central Ward covers Mount Annan, Narellan Vale, Currans Hill, Gregory Hills and Spring Farm. The entire ward lies on the eastern side of Camden Valley Way.

The North Ward covers a majority of the land area in the council, and the fastest-growing parts of the council. Suburbs include Cobbitty, Oran Park, Catherine Field, Leppington, Gledswood Hills and Rossmore.

The South Ward covers the oldest most established suburbs in the council, including Camden, Camden South, Bickley Vale, Grassmere, Elderslie, Kirkham, Harrington Park, Smeaton Grange and Narellan.

Redistribution
The redistribution was quite significant, with roughly a quarter of voters moved into a different ward.

The North Ward lost Harrington Park to the South Ward and gained Gledswood Hills from the Central Ward.

The South Ward gained Smeaton Grange from the Central Ward, swapping it for Spring Farm.

Incumbent councillors

History
Camden Council has a short history of being dominated by political parties.

The 1999-2004 council appears to have leant in a progressive direction. Centre-left independent Eva Campbell served as mayor for two years, followed by Geoff Corrigan, who held the job for eighteen months until elected as the Labor MP for Camden in 2003.

In 2004, every seat was won by an independent, although two of them could be clearly identified with the Liberal Party, including Liz Kernohan, who had served as the state Liberal MP for the area from 1991 to 2003. She died less than a year into her term. The Greens also stood in that election, but no other parties.

The 2008 election was entirely non-partisan, although at least two tickets were led by candidates who went on to become state MPs for a major party. Chris Patterson, who became Liberal MP for Camden in 2011, had won the by-election following Kernohan’s death in 2005, became mayor in 2006 and polled 64% in the South Ward in 2008. Greg Warren, who would become Labor MP for Campbelltown in 2015, polled 35% in the Central Ward and won a seat.

The Liberal Party ran for Camden Council for the first time in 2012, polling 40.6% and winning five out of nine seats on the council. Amongst the Liberals on council, two of them had served on the previous council. Debbie Dewbery had been elected as Chris Patterson’s running mate in the South Ward in 2008, while Lara Symkowiak had been elected as David Funnell’s running mate in the North Ward in 2008. Patterson had left the council after winning a state seat in 2011, but Funnell ran unsuccessfully as an independent in 2012.

Chris Patterson had served as mayor right up until his election to parliament in 2011. Soon after the mayoralty went to Greg Warren, who held the job until the 2012 council election.

Symkowiak became mayor at the head of the Liberal majority in 2012, and held the job for the next six years.

At the 2016 election, Labor responded to the Liberal intervention in 2012 by also running.

Seven of the nine seats went to one of the two major parties: four Liberals and three Labor. The Labor councillors included Cindy Cagney, who had previously served on Camden Council as an independent but had lost her seat in 2012.

Liz Campbell was re-elected as an independent. Campbell has served on the council since at least 1999.

The final seat went to independent local butcher Robert Mills, who polled over a full quota (26.4%) below the line despite being ranked second on fellow independent Scott Metcalfe’s ticket. Metcalfe polled just 11% in above- and below-the-line votes.

An alliance of Liberals and Mills ran the council from 2016 until 2021. Symkowiak served two more years as mayor before handing over to Peter Sidgreaves who held the job for less than a year before being elected as the state MP for Camden in 2019. He was replaced as mayor by his deputy Therese Fedeli in 2019, and Mills was elected as her deputy mayor.

The partisan balance on the council stayed the same in 2021. Mills retired, with independent Peter McLean winning the third seat in the Central Ward.

Since 2021, the mayoralty and deputy mayoralty have been shared between the major parties. Fedeli continued as mayor until May 2023, when she handed over to Labor councillor Ashleigh Cagney. Each mayor had a deputy from the other major party.

Council control
There have been three mayoral elections during the current term. On each occasion, an alliance of Liberal and Labor councillors elected a mayor and deputy mayor by a 6-2 or 7-2 margin, with independents Campbell and McLean voting for themselves in opposition. A Liberal mayor has been paired with a Labor deputy mayor and vice versa.

Thus it appears that a grand coalition of Liberal and Labor (holding more than three quarters of council seats) are working together to share leadership roles on the council.

Candidate summary
Sitting Labor councillor Paul Farrow is not running for re-election. Sitting Liberal councillors Usha Dommaraju, Lara Symkowiak and Russell Zammit were not successfully nominated by the Liberal Party.

The ALP is running for all three wards, although in the North Ward they have only nominated two candidates so can only receive votes below the line.

The Liberal Party is only running for the Central Ward.

The Libertarian Party is running for the North and South wards.

Independent councillors Peter McLean and Eva Campbell are running for the Central and South wards respectively. Councillor Cindy Cagney, previously a Labor councillor, is running as an independent in the South ward.

Independent candidate Abha Suri is running for the North ward.

The full candidate list is at the end of this guide.

Assessment
The Liberal Party has been hit hard by nomination problems here. They have only managed to nominate a ticket in their least-favourable ward, where they will face off against the Labor mayor and a sitting independent. It’s hard to see the Liberals winning more than one seat.

Labor should win a seat in each ward.

In the South Ward, Labor’s Damian Quinnell and independent Eva Campbell should each win a seat, and it seems likely ex-Labor independent Cindy Cagney will win the third seat.

The North Ward is particularly bare, but Labor’s chances of winning two seats will be hindered by not having an above-the-line box. The Libertarian Party could well have a chance of gaining the right-wing votes left unable to vote Liberal, or votes could go to the low-profile independent Abha Suri.

Overall it seems likely there will be a progressive majority on the council, but it’s hard to see Labor gaining a majority in their own right. One possible shape for that majority would be 3 Labor, plus Cagney and Campbell.

2021 results

Vote breakdown by ward
The following two tables show the vote in each ward before and after the recent redistribution.

The Liberal Party topped the primary vote in all three wards, with a vote ranging from 39.7% in the South Ward to 49.1% in the North Ward.

The Labor primary vote ranged from 26% in the South Ward to 36.4% in the Central Ward.

The combined independent vote ranged from 14.2% in the North Ward to 34.3% in the South. Eva Campbell polled a full quota in the South Ward, while Peter McLean managed 21.6% in the Central Ward.

The redistribution balanced the Liberal vote more evenly between the North and South wards. But this is mainly a function of splitting Campbell’s vote between two wards, so it’s hard to say if that trend would remain once Campbell mounts a campaign in the suburbs newly added to her ward.

Pre-redistribution vote numbers

Post-redistribution vote numbers

Election results at the 2021 Camden Council election
Toggle between primary votes for Labor, the Greens, independent Liberal candidates and independent candidates Liz Barlow, Heidi Douglas, Andrew Tsounis, and Jennifer Muscat.

Candidates – Central Ward

• A – Independent
  1. Cr Peter McLean
  2. Juliane Scuteri
  3. David Nethercote
• B – Labor
  1. Cr Ashleigh Cagney
  2. Koady Williams
  3. Tahia Khair
• C – Liberal
  1. Cr Therese Fedeli
  2. Diana Zammit
  3. Salvatore Barone
• Ungrouped
  • Ewelina Ellsmore (Shooters, Fishers And Farmers)

Candidates – North Ward

• A – Independent
  1. Abha Suri
  2. Manish Tripathi
  3. Harsha Chopra
• B – Labor
  1. Eliza Rahman
  2. Molly Quinnell
• C – Libertarian
  1. Vince Ferreri
  2. Domenico Gattellari
  3. Stefanie Ferreri

Candidates – South Ward

• A – Labor
  1. Damien Quinnell
  2. Deniz Sabuncuoglu
  3. Brian Calcutt
• B – Independent
  1. Cr Cindy Cagney
  2. Con Diomis
  3. Domenic Zappia
• C – Libertarian
  1. Rose Sicari
  2. Amanda Wihare
  3. Maria Cartisano
• D – Independent
  1. Cr Eva Campbell
  2. Jill Leemen
  3. Keith Hart
• Ungrouped
  • Renee Sillato (Independent)

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