Lake Macquarie council election, 2024

The City of Lake Macquarie covers southern parts of the Hunter region on three sides of Lake Macquarie, including Catherine Hill Bay, Swansea, Belmont, Kahibah, Warners Bay, Charlestown, Cardiff, Speers Point, West Wallsend, Morisset and Toronto.

Lake Macquarie has a population of approximately 217,000 people (as of 2022).

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

Wards
Lake Macquarie is divided up into three wards, with each ward electing four councillors. The council also includes a directly-elected mayor.

East ward covers the land mass between Lake Macquarie and the Pacific Ocean, stretching from Catherine Hill Bay in the south to Mount Hutton, Gateshead, Eleebana and Redhead in the north. This ward also covers Belmont, Valentine and Swansea, and parts of Warners Bay.

North ward covers those areas closest to Newcastle, stretching from Dudley and Kahibah near the ocean to West Wallsend in the northwestern corner of the council. This ward covers the entire council boundary with the City of Newcastle, and only touches the shore of Lake Macquarie in one small area at Speers Point and Warners Bay. The ward also covers Charlestown, Hillsborough, Cardiff, Glendale, Macquarie Hills and Edgeworth.

West ward covers a majority of the council’s landmass, including those areas on the western shore of Lake Macquarie and further inland. Major centres include Morisset, Toronto, Rathmines and Bonnells Bay.

Redistribution
A number of changes were made to the North Ward’s boundaries with both of the other wards.

The East Ward expanded north to take in parts of Warners Bay from the North Ward, and there were a number of minor realignments to the border between Bennets Green and Dudley.

North Ward then expanded into the West Ward, taking Boolaroo, Lakelands, Macquarie Point and Speers Point. The West Ward also expanded north at the western end of the boundary to takin sparsely-populated Barnsley and Holmesville.

Incumbent mayor
Kay Fraser (Labor)

Incumbent councillors

¹Luke Cubis resigned from council in July 2023.
²Liberal councillor Nick Jones was removed from council in February 2024 after missing three consecutive meetings.
History
Lake Macquarie has long been dominated by Labor politicians at a state and federal level, but the local council had been home to a strong independent alliance which ruled the council for two terms, but has since disappeared.

This group went by the name “Independent Lake Alliance”, and in 2004 their mayoral candidate Greg Piper was successful in winning the mayoralty, after serving 13 years as an independent councillor. Piper’s alliance won five out of twelve council seats, with Labor winning five, the Liberal Party one, and the final seat won by independent Rob O’Brien. This gave Piper’s team six out of thirteen seats, one short of a majority.

Piper went on to win the state seat of Lake Macquarie at the 2007 election, defeating longstanding Labor MP Jeff Hunter.

Piper was re-elected as mayor in 2008, at the head of a much more diverse council. Labor’s council ranks dropped from five to three. The Liberal Party won a second seat, and the Greens won two. Piper’s team won four seats on the council in addition to his own, and the final seat was won by independent Barry Johnston, a sitting Labor councillor who had lost his preselection.

Piper was re-elected to his state seat in 2011, and in 2012 he did not run for a third term as mayor.

The mayoralty was contested by north ward councillor Jodie Harrison from Labor, and west ward councillor Wendy Harrison from the Independent Lake Alliance. Labor’s Harrison defeated the independent Harrison with 52.2% of the vote after preferences.

Labor strengthened its position on Lake Macquarie council in 2012, winning five council seats in addition to Jodie Harrison’s seat as mayor. The Independent Lake Alliance dropped to four seats, including Barry Johnston who joined their team. The Liberal Party increased their representation to three seats, while the Greens did not win any seats.

In 2014, Labor mayor Jodie Harrison was elected to state parliament in the Charlestown by-election, and she was re-elected at the 2015 state election.

The 2016 election was a status quo result for Labor and Liberal. Labor retained their five council seats along with the mayoralty, while the Liberal Party retained their three seats.

The Independent Lake Alliance, however, was decimated. This group did not register its name as a party, and instead contested the election as independent tickets in each ward. They were challenged by a conservative local party (which had registered it’s name) called “Lake Mac Independents” (LMI). The LMI polled 16.8% and won a seat in each ward. The ILA’s vote dropped to 18.5%, and only won a single seat, with the party’s former mayoral candidate Wendy Harrison re-elected in the West Ward.

The mayoral election was much more decisive than in 2012, with an 11.8% primary vote swing to Labor’s mayoral candidate Kay Fraser. The Labor primary vote reached 44.7%.

Labor finally won a majority on council for the first time in at least 20 years in 2021. ILA councillor Wendy Harrison retired, and Labor won her seat. This left them with six ward councillors plus the mayor, alongside three Lake Mac Independents councillors and three Liberal councillors.

Council control
Labor has a clear 7-6 majority on the council.

Candidate summary
Sitting Labor mayor Kay Fraser is not running for election.

There are four parties who are running full tickets across the council: Labor, Liberal, Greens and Lake Mac Independents.

Our Local Community is running for mayor and the West Ward. Independent candidate Rosmairi Dawson is also running for mayor and the West Ward.

Other independent council groups are:

• Rowen Turnbull (East Ward)
• Anthony Swinsburg (West Ward)

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

Assessment
Lake Macquarie is a left-leaning council. The council structure tends to produce left-right deadlocks if the vote is close to even. In the current party system, it has easily sorted into 2 Labor, 1 Liberal and 1 LMI in each ward. While LMI is very right-wing, they are probably attracting voters from across the spectrum who find the independent claim appealing.

As long as Labor maintains the mayoralty (which seems likely) this is enough to ensure a centre-left majority. If LMI were to lose ground, it’s plausible that a third centre-left councillor could get elected in the East or North wards.

It’s also possible that Labor could lose its majority to other centre-left independents or the Greens, and thus maintain a centre-left majority split between multiple groups.

2021 council election result

2021 mayoral election result

2021 mayoral election two-candidate-preferred result

Vote breakdown by ward
The following tables show the vote in each ward before and after the recent redistribution for the council election. Unfortunately the mayoral results were not separated by ward, so we can only identify the home ward of ordinary votes, and it’s not worth recalculating for the redistribution.

Labor topped the primary vote, with their vote in the low 40s in the East and North wards, and 33% in the West Ward.

The Liberal primary vote ranged from 21.8% in the North Ward to 28.8% in the West Ward.

The Lake Mac Independents vote ranged from 15.3% in the North Ward to 25.9% in the West Ward.

The Greens came fourth, with a vote ranging from just under 9% in the East and West wards to 11.8% in the North Ward.

The main change in the redistribution was lifting the Liberal vote in their worst ward (the North).

Council results by 2021 ward

Mayoral results by 2021 ward

Council results by 2024 ward

Election results at the 2021 City of Lake Macquarie election
Toggle between primary votes for Labor, the Liberal Party, the Lake Mac Independents and the Greens.

Election results at the 2021 City of Lake Macquarie mayoral election
Toggle between primary votes for Labor, the Liberal Party, the Lake Mac Independents and independent candidate Rosmairi Dawson.

Candidates – Mayor

• Bryce Ham (Greens)
• Melody Harding (Liberal)
• Cr Adam Shultz (Labor)
• John Gilbert (Our Local Community)
• Rosmairi Dawson (Independent)
• Cr Kate Warner (Lake Mac Independents)

Candidates – East Ward

• A – Labor
  1. Cr Adam Shultz
  2. Cr Christine Buckley
  3. Stacey Radcliffe
  4. Joseph Steel
• B – Independent
  1. Rowen Turnbull
  2. Kaciee Wagstaff
  3. Dyllan Harvey
  4. Tina Sulis
• C – Lake Mac Independents
  1. Michael Hannah
  2. David Gibson
  3. John Edwards
  4. Allison Hannah
• D – Greens
  1. Jane Oakley
  2. Elizabeth Riley
  3. Patricia Philippou
  4. Stephanee Reay Bartsch
• E – Liberal
  1. Matt Schultz
  2. Melody Harding
  3. Rod Chapman
  4. Dianne Volker

Candidates – North Ward

• A – Lake Mac Independents
  1. Cr Colin Grigg
  2. Tara Hall
  3. Daniel Secomb
  4. Timothy Sullivan
• B – Greens
  1. Bryce Ham
  2. Gregory Watkinson
  3. Tal Nelson
  4. Andrew McLean
• C – Liberal
  1. Cr Jack Antcliff
  2. Daniel Swane
  3. Susan Antcliff
  4. Mark Pauling
• D – Labor
  1. Cr Brian Adamthwaite
  2. Cr Keara Conroy
  3. Mark Howells
  4. Gaurav Vijay
• Ungrouped
  • James McCorkell (Independent)
  • Travis McCorkell (Independent)
  • Daniel Smith (Independent)

Candidates – West Ward

• A – Lake Mac Independents
  1. Cr Kate Warner
  2. Ashley Dorse
  3. Steve Graham
  4. Olenka Motyka
• B – Our Local Community
  1. Toni Bowyer
  2. Elizabeth Cooper
  3. Alan Hogan
  4. Paris Southee
• C – Greens
  1. Ingrid Schraner
  2. Kim Grierson
  3. Kerry Suwald
  4. Charmian Eckersley
• D – Labor
  1. Cr Madeline Bishop
  2. Cr David Belcher
  3. Mackenzie Robson
  4. Stephen Ryan
• E – Independent
  1. Rosmairi Dawson
  2. Graham Davidson
  3. Janette Coulter
  4. Melissa Rogan
• F – Liberal
  1. Cr Jason Pauling
  2. Nicholas Jones
  3. Julie Pauling
  4. Michael Uidam
• G – Independent
  1. Anthony Swinsburg
  2. Lorna Edwards
  3. David Pickard
  4. Linda Lord
• Ungrouped
  • Eddie Milton (Independent)

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