Blacktown council election, 2024

The City of Blacktown covers parts of north-western Sydney, including the Blacktown and Mount Druitt urban centres and the suburbs of Quakers Hill, Kings Langley, Seven Hills, Rooty Hill, Doonside, Shalvey, Whalan, Kellyville Ridge, Schofields and Riverstone.

Blacktown has a population of approximately 410,897 people (as of 2022), which makes it the four-largest council in Australia. Blacktown is the most populous council in New South Wales.

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

Wards
Blacktown is divided up into five wards, with each ward electing three councillors.

The five wards are numbered from Ward 1 to Ward 5. The wards are numbered in a clockwise direction, starting with Ward 1 in northern parts of the council.

Ward 1 covers north-eastern parts of the electorate, mostly covering newly-developing suburbs and less developed parts of the council, including the suburbs of Kellyville Ridge, Stanhope Gardens, Parklea and eastern parts of Schofields and Riverstone.

Ward 2 covers eastern areas including Kings Langley, Glenwood, Marayong, Lalor Park and parts of Blacktown, Seven Hills and Quakers Hill.

Ward 3 covers the south-east of the council, including Prospect, Arndell Park, Huntingwood, Woodcroft, most of Blacktown and parts of Seven Hills.

Ward 4 covers the south-west of the council, including Mount Druitt, Rooty Hill, Minchinbury, Doonside, Plumpton and Glendenning.

Ward 5 covers the north-west of the council, including Tregear, Shalvey, Whalan and parts of and Oakhurst.

Redistribution
Changes were made to all five wards. The northern wards 1 and 5 contracted, the south-eastern wards 2 and 3 expanded, and Ward 4 both gained and lost territory.

Ward 1 lost parts of Quakers Hill to wards 2 and 4.

Ward 2 gained parts of Quakers Hill from both wards 1 and 4. Ward 3 gained Woodcroft from Ward 4.

Ward 4 gained the remainder of Plumpton as well as Nirimba Fields from Ward 5.

Incumbent councillors

¹Labor councillor Tony Bleasdale died in May 2024.
History
Labor has dominated Blacktown council for decades with the exception of the 2012-2016 term, when their majority was broken.

In 2004, Labor won ten out of fifteen seats. The Liberal Party won the third seat in four wards, with independent Russ Dickens winning the final seat.

Labor managed to hold on to a narrow majority in 2008, holding on to eight of their seats. The Liberal Party won a seat in all five wards. In Ward 1, sitting Liberal councillor Allan Green was deselected, but he was re-elected as an independent. Independent Russ Dickens was also re-elected.

Labor lost its majority on Blacktown council at the 2012 election, retaining seven seats. The Liberal Party gained second seats in two wards, giving them a total of seven seats (including one taken from Allan Green), with Russ Dickens holding the balance of power.

Dickens sided with the Liberal Party in the 2012 mayoral vote, ending a lengthy period of Labor holding the Blacktown mayoralty. The Liberal Party’s Len Robinson was elected mayor, and was re-elected in 2013.

After two years of Liberal mayors, Labor regained the mayoralty in 2014. The election was conducted by secret ballot, and one of the seven Liberal councillors apparently cast their vote for Labor mayoral candidate Stephen Bali, giving him a majority. Bali defeated Liberal candidate Jess Diaz, who was slated to replace his party colleague Robinson.

When the time came to choose a mayor in 2015, Liberal councillor Jacqueline Donaldson decided to quit the Liberal Party. Donaldson supported Bali for a second term as mayor, and was supported by the Labor councillors as deputy mayor.

Labor regained a dominant position at the 2016 election, winning ten out of fifteen seats, with the other five going to the Liberal Party. Dickens and Donaldson both lost their seats running as independents.

The Liberal Party opted out of contesting the 2021 election. Two different groups of Liberal Party members ran as independents, winning three seats between them. Two sitting Liberal councillors (Diaz and Camilleri) were re-elected as independents, while the other ticket (supported by local state MP Kevin Conolly) won a single seat. Two other independents were elected. Allan Green returned to council, while Livingston Chettipally was elected for the first time.

Council control
Labor has a clear majority in the City of Blacktown.

Candidate summary
Sitting Labor councillors Kathie Collins and Chris Quilkey and independent councillors Michael Stubley and Livingston Chettipally are not running for election.

Labor and Liberal are running for all five wards. The Greens are running for wards 1, 2 and 5.

The only other group is the Animal Justice Party in Ward 3.

Assessment
Labor is very strong in Blacktown. In 2021, they managed to win a second councillor in all five wards. They would need to lose at least three of those seats before they would lose their majority. On the other hand, Labor benefited from the absence of official Liberal candidates in 2021. The Liberal Party will likely do a bit better than the independent Liberals who ran in 2021. But they would need to do quite well to deprive Labor of a majority.

2021 results

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

The Labor primary vote ranged from 47.6% in Ward 2 to 57.9% in Ward 4.

The Independent Coalition Team polled a vote ranging from 12.7% in Ward 5 to 26.6% in Ward 2 (where they won a seat). The other independent Liberals polled a full quota in wards 1 and 4, and a smaller vote in Ward 2.

Other independents polled a full quota in wards 3 and 5, but otherwise did not make much of a mark.

The main thing to note from the redistribution changes is that Labor’s vote in Ward 2, their weakest ward and the only ward where they fell short of two quotas, was substantially weakened from 47.6% to 44.2%.

Pre-redistribution vote numbers

Post-redistribution vote numbers

Election results at the 2021 City of Blacktown council election
Toggle between primary votes for Labor, the Independent Coalition Team, independent Liberal candidates, the Greens and independent candidates Allan Green, Livingston Chettipally and John Hunter.

Candidates – Ward 1

• A – Labor
  1. Cr Moninderjit Singh
  2. Ahalya Rentala
  3. Jordan Hedi
• B – Greens
  1. Shabir Singh
  2. Kayal Rajasekaran
  3. Parker Colborne
• C – Liberal
  1. Cr Jess Diaz
  2. Cr Allan Green
  3. Rahul Rawal

Candidates – Ward 2

• A – Greens
  1. Damien Atkins
  2. Palaniappan Subramanian
  3. Hannah Tall
• B – Liberal
  1. Mohit Kumar
  2. Damian Milne
  3. Cara Middleton
• C – Labor
  1. Cr Julie Griffiths
  2. Cr Kushpinder Kaur
  3. Emma Willis

Candidates – Ward 3

• A – Animal Justice
  1. Emma Kerin
  2. Ingrid Akkari
  3. Rigel Best
• B – Liberal
  1. Pradeep Pathi
  2. Richard McDonald
  3. Jacob Crews
• C – Labor
  1. Cr Carol Israel
  2. Cr Susai Benjamin
  3. Caitlin Mahony

Candidates – Ward 4

• A – Labor
  1. Cr Bob Fitzgerald
  2. Dorothy Del Villar
  3. Shoaib Shams
• B – Liberal
  1. Cr Peter Camilleri
  2. Cassandra Mullard
  3. Fiel Santos
• Ungrouped
  • Maywand Hanifi (Independent)

Candidates – Ward 5

• A – Greens
  1. Talwinder Singh
  2. Len Hobbs
  3. Arif Rahman
• B – Labor
  1. Cr Brad Bunting
  2. Talia Amituanai
  3. Neeraj Duggal
• C – Liberal
  1. Jugandeep Singh
  2. Waqar Nasir
  3. Jigishaben Patel

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