Mid-Coast council election, 2024

Mid-Coast Council covers a large part of the NSW mid-north coast including a number of major regional towns. The council covers Taree, Forster, Tuncurry, Gloucester, Bulahdelah and Wingham.

Mid-Coast Council has a population of approximately 97,000 as of 2022.

• Incumbent councillors
• History
• Council control
• Candidate summary
• Assessment
• 2021 results
• Booth breakdown
• Results maps

Wards
Mid-Coast Council has no wards.

Incumbent councillors

History
Mid-Coast Council was created in 2016 as an amalgamation of the Greater Taree, Great Lakes and Gloucester councils. Based on the 2011 census, Greater Taree made up 54.2% of the new council’s population, Great Lakes made up 40.1%, and Gloucester made up 5.7%.

The initial council elected in 2017 included two Labor councillors and one Liberal councillor. Of the eleven councillors, nine of them had held a seat on one of the three previous councils immediately prior to the councils being abolished. The only two exceptions were the Liberal councillor Troy Fowler and Labor councillor Claire Pontin. Of those nine restored councillors, they included five Greater Taree councillors, three Great Lakes councillors and one Gloucester councillor, which was roughly in proportion to the former councils’ share of population.

The council opted to use a secret preferential ballot for the 2017 mayoral election and the 2017 and 2018 deputy mayoral elections, so it isn’t possible to say exactly how each councillor voted, or even the number of votes for each candidate.

Five councillors contested the first mayoral election, with independent David West winning. Gloucester-area councillor Katheryn Smith was elected deputy mayor, and won a second term in 2018.

At the 2019 mayoral election, West was re-elected with seven out of eleven votes. Councillor Bell received four votes from herself and councillors Epov, McWilliams and Keegan. Labor councillor Pontin won the deputy mayoralty with an 8-3 margin over Bell. Keegan switched to vote for his fellow Labor councillor, but Epov, Bell and McWilliams proved to consistently vote for one of their own group for every remaining leadership election, while every other councillor would stick with West and Pontin.

Pontin was re-elected deputy mayor in 2020, and West and Pontin were re-elected for a short term in September 2021 (Pontin was unopposed that last time).

The 2021 election saw six out of eleven councillors re-elected. Councillors Roberts and Hutchinson lost their re-election attempts, while three others retired.

Labor’s council team was reduced to just one seat. The Liberal Party won a second seat, with incumbent mayor David West running as the second Liberal candidate. The Greens’ Dheera Smith broke through for her party, and Peter Epov’s independent ticket won a second seat.

The January 2022 mayoral and deputy mayoral elections produced a clear 7-4 split. Labor’s Claire Pontin won the mayoralty with new councillor Alan Tickle elected deputy mayor. Epov contested the mayoralty and Bell contested the deputy mayoralty. Epov, Bell and Epov’s running mate Peter Howard voted for the opposition ticket, along with the new Greens councillor.

Pontin and Tickle were re-elected without a contest in September 2023.

Council control
Mid-Coast Council includes a large group of independents, which makes it harder to judge who is actually in control. The last contested mayoral election in 2022 showed a 7-4 divide, with a group of independents led by Peter Epov and Kathryn Bell, along with a Greens councillor, voting against a majority which includes the Labor mayor, Claire Pontin, and both Liberal councillors. Epov and Bell also consistently voted against the majority group in mayoral elections in the previous term. But without further analysis it’s not possible to tell if this is reflective of other issues that come before the council.

Candidate summary
Sitting councillors Kathryn Bell, Peter Epov and Katheryn Stinson are not running for re-election. Liberal councillors Troy Fowler and David West are not on the ballot, seemingly due to a Liberal Party nomination error.

The six other councillors are running for re-election, with each one heading up their own ticket. There are also two other groups with an above the line box: the Libertarian Party and an independent group headed by Thomas O’Keefe. There’s also a group of four candidates and six ungrouped candidates without access to above the line votes.

Assessment
Mid-Coast Council is still a diverse council including numerous independents, and the absence of the Liberal Party will enhance the non-partisan forces in the council. It’s hard to assess which grouping will be in power, but Liberal voters shouldn’t have much trouble finding other conservatives to vote for.

2021 results

Booth breakdown

Since there are no wards in Mid-Coast Council, booths have been split into five areas. The two main urban areas are Taree and Forster-Tuncurry, and they have been grouped separately. The remaining areas have been split along the pre-2016 local government boundaries: North-East (Greater Taree), South (Great Lakes) and Gloucester.

The vote for the Liberal, Labor and Greens parties was highest in the south and Forster-Tuncurry, while independents tended to be stronger in Taree and the North-East.

The independent vote was particularly high in Gloucester, with Katheryn Smith (now Stinson) polling a majority of the vote across the two Gloucester booths.

I have grouped together the vote for Peter Epov and Kathryn Bell’s tickets. They did best in the North-East and Taree, which was a similar pattern as for the remaining independents.

Election results at the 2021 Mid-Coast Council election
Toggle between primary votes for the Liberal Party, Labor, the Greens and independent candidates Peter Epov, Alan Tickle, Paul Sandilands, Jeremy Miller, Katheryn Smith and Kathryn Bell.

Candidates

• A – Independent
  1. Cr Peter Howard
  2. Fabian Clancy
  3. Rebecca Cross
  4. Scott Paterson
  5. Roderick Donegan
  6. Emmerson Hollis
• B – Independent
  1. Thomas O’Keefe
  2. Bruce Murray
  3. Jeanette Hart
  4. Malcolm Motum
  5. Terry Munright
  6. Heather Vaughan
• C – Independent
  1. Cr Jeremy Miller
  2. Donna Ballard
  3. Bronwyn Sharpe
  4. Alexander Lewers
  5. Tanya Brown
  6. Jake Davey
• D – Labor
  1. Cr Claire Pontin
  2. Digby Wilson
  3. Nicolle Green
  4. Phillip Costa
  5. Michael Burgess
  6. Mark Vanstone
• E – Independent
  1. Cr Alan Tickle
  2. Nicole Turnbull
  3. Carley Burke
  4. Philip Walkom
  5. Michael Kent
  6. Kylie Turner
• F – Independent
  1. Emma Mellows
  2. Veronica Frost
  3. Jennifer Lennox
  4. John Fisher
• G – Libertarian
  1. Michael Graham
  2. Phillip Beazley
  3. Mal McKenzie
  4. Mitchell Wilson
  5. John Gazecki
  6. Stuart Cameron
• H – Independent
  1. Cr Paul Sandilands
  2. Mark Stuart Johnson
  3. Jessica Corkill
  4. Sandra Zielke
  5. Gilbert Whyte
  6. Scott Grant
• I – Greens
  1. Cr Dheera Smith
  2. Janeece Irving
  3. Michael Townsend
  4. Jessica Harris
  5. Nathan Wales
  6. Megan Cooke
• Ungrouped
  • Richard Streamer (Independent)
  • Elizabeth McEntyre (Independent)
  • Karen Hutchinson (Independent)
  • Stephen Smith (Independent)
  • John Sahyoun (Independent)
  • Vivien Panhuber (Independent)

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