Voters in New South Wales will go to the polls on September 14 to elect their local councils for the next four years.
The previous council elections were due in September 2020, but were delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The election was then scheduled for September 2021, but was delayed until December 2021 due to the second COVID-19 lockdown in New South Wales.
This guide will not cover all 128 local government areas in New South Wales: instead it is focused on the 27 most populous councils. These are the only councils in New South Wales with a total population of 95,000 or more people.
25 of these councils were profiled in 2021. The only exceptions are Mid-Coast and Tweed, which I have added to expand the list.
There are approximately 5.5 million people living in these 27 council areas, as of 2022. That equates to 67.2% of the NSW population. There are 3.67 million voters enrolled in these local government areas as of November 2023, which is 65.5% of the total NSW electorate.
These guides feature maps and tables showing the results of the last election, a history of each local council, information about ward boundaries, lists of incumbent councillors and information about candidates running in this year’s election. There are also comment sections where you can discuss each council election. If you find errors or information in need of an update, you can contact me or post a comment.
There will be a lot more to say about the local government elections, looking at trends beyond a single local government area. You can keep track of all my blog posts on this topic using this tag.
This guide has been a tremendous effort and I have only had the time to work on it thanks to the support of donors via Patreon. If you find this guide useful please consider signing up for as little as $5 per month.
This entire guide is now free for everyone to access.
This map shows the councils which have been profiled in red. You can click on a council to find the link to the profile, along with some other information.
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If you have a correction or an update for a single electorate page, feel free to post a comment. You can also send an email by using this form.
If you’d like me to include a candidate name or website link in my election guide, please check out my candidate information policy.
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KEY COUNCILS — WHAT TO WATCH:
The key battlegrounds for the majors this time are: Blacktown, Burwood, Camden, Canada Bay, Central Coast, Cumberland, Georges River, Liverpool, Penrith, Port Stephens, Queanbeyan-Palerang, Randwick, Ryde, Strathfield and Tweed.
I’m gonna say the Central Coast will be the main key council this time since it’s already a key council but it’s the first time in years that it’s had an election due to the administrator control.
Councils with large Muslim populations such as Blacktown, Campbelltown, Canterbury-Bankstown, Cumberland, Fairfield and Liverpool could also have swings to independents who run on a pro-Palestine platform and are active on local issues effecting ethnic people in particular.
This will be an interesting set of elections.
I don’t think the effect of the Palestine issue won’t be as big as you think in certain councils. It’s actually a federal, foreign affairs issue. Many Labor councillors from western and south-western Sydney are of Arab descent and/or Muslim, or are sympathetic to the Palestinian cause. Canterbury-Bankstown Council raised a Palestinian flag at their council chambers late last year.
*I don’t think the effect of the Palestine issue [will] be as big as you think.
@Votante it could be that voters chose to send a message to Labor though.
I’m curious for your predictions for the other key councils though, particularly who will win the Central Coast Council after years of administration.
Question… I’ll soon be relocating to Queensland. I’m wondering how the exact timing of my move will affect which elections (NSW local, QLD state) I can vote in. My guess is that if I’m enrolled in the state when the rolls close, I can (and must) vote in the respective election (and conversely, I cannot vote if I’m not enrolled in the state when the rolls close), regardless of where I actually reside at the time of the election. Is that correct? (And yes, I’m aware that I can only update my enrolment one month after relocating.)
Also, yikes, there’s no interstate in-person voting for local elections. (I guess that makes sense!) And I can’t leave a postal ballot application too late. Hmm. I’ll have to bear that in mind.
I think having moved out of the state would be considered a reasonable excuse for not voting.
@Nicholas how did you type in italics?
@Nether Portal
Some HTML tags are permitted in WordPress comments.
@Nicholas ahh I see. So like this?
Those who are interested can view my map of metropolitan (Greater Sydney/Greater Newcastle) LGAs by largest religion can do so on the Liverpool page.
The Liberal Nomination screw up is going to have some major ramifications come the federal election