Sydney council election, 2024

The City of Sydney covers the central suburbs of Sydney, including Pyrmont, Ultimo, Glebe, Forest Lodge, Erskineville, Surry Hills, Chippendale, Darlinghurst, the Rocks, Woolloomooloo, Potts Point, Elizabeth Bay, Redfern, Alexandria, Waterloo, Zetland and Rosebery, as well as parts of Paddington, Newtown, Camperdown.

The City of Sydney has a population of approximately 218,000 people as of 2022.

Wards
The City of Sydney has no wards.

Incumbent mayor
Clover Moore (Clover Moore Team)

Incumbent councillors

William Chan (Moore Team) Lyndon Gannon (Liberal) Linda Scott (Labor)
Emelda Davis (Moore Team) Shauna Jarrett (Liberal) Yvonne Weldon (Ind)
Sylvie Ellsmore (Greens) Robert Kok (Moore Team) Adam Worling (Moore)1

1Adam Worling won a countback on 9 May 2023 after the resignation of Jess Scully.

History
The City of Sydney has been a key political prize since its creation in the 1840s, but has taken on different shapes over time. Since it was dramatically expanded in the late 1940s, the council has regularly been redrawn, taking in larger and smaller areas based on the self-interest of state governments.

The original council covered the northern half of the current council, including Pyrmont, Ultimo, Surry Hills and Kings Cross, but not much more. In 1909, the council expanded to take in the Camperdown council area.

For most of the twentieth century, the City of Sydney was a contest primarily between the Labor Party and Civic Reform, a local political party opposed to Labor control of the council.

Labor held the lord mayoralty for the majority of the time from 1916 until 1927, but the council was run by a panel of commissioners from 1928 until 1930.

Civic Reform dominated the lord mayoralty from 1930 until 1948. No Labor lord mayors served during this time, and Civic Reform only lost the lord mayoralty to independents for four years in the late 1930s.

The City of Sydney was expanded to cover its largest expanse in 1949, when a number of small councils bordering the City of Sydney were absorbed into a single council. These councils were Paddington, Glebe, Alexandria, Darlington, Erskineville, Newtown, Redfern and Waterloo. This version of the council covered all of the current boundaries, as well as the remainders of Newtown and Paddington.

This change was made by the state Labor government, and it improved the political fortunes of Labor in the City. Labor held the lord mayoralty continuously from 1949 until 1967.

The Liberal Party under Robin Askin returned to power in New South Wales in 1965, and quickly acted to rid the City of Labor rule. The council was sacked in 1967, and in 1968 was split into two halves. The City of Sydney lost Glebe to Leichhardt council, most of Paddington to Woollahra council and half of Newtown to Marrickville council. The remainder south of Camperdown, Chippendale and Surry Hills was formed into a new council which eventually took the name South Sydney. These suburbs took most of the Labor-voting areas with them, strengthening conservative forces in the shrunken City.

Civic Reform won power in 1969, holding town hall until 1980, when Labor won the lord mayoralty. Labor had also won state government in 1976, and in 1982 they merged South Sydney council into the City of Sydney, restoring the council to something close to maximum size from 1949 until 1967.

Labor’s Doug Sutherland served as Lord Mayor over this expanded council until 1987, when the council was sacked. The City of Sydney retracted to its smallest ever size in 1989, only covering the CBD, Pyrmont and Ultimo. The remainder of territory was handed over to another South Sydney council, again ruled by Labor.

Labor was not competitive in this tiny council. Jeremy Bingham became the last Civic Reform lord mayor from 1989 until 1991, when he was succeeded by independent Frank Sartor. Sartor was re-elected in 1995 and 1999. In 2003, he resigned as lord mayor to run as the Labor candidate for the seat of Rockdale. Sartor went on to serve as Member for Rockdale until his retirement in 2011.

Sartor was replaced as lord mayor for the remainder of his term by Lucy Turnbull. In early 2003, the council expanded to take in Glebe from Leichhardt council.

In early 2004, the state Labor government decided to merge the City of Sydney with the traditionally Labor-voting City of South Sydney to create a larger City of Sydney, covering similar areas to the 1949-67 council and 1982-89 council. Labor had ambitions of taking control of the new council, and ran former Keating government minister Michael Lee for lord mayor, but these ambitions came undone when independent state MP Clover Moore announced plans to run for lord mayor.

Moore had previously served on South Sydney council and then the City of Sydney in the 1980s, and ran for Parliament in 1988 after her plans for the local council were defeated by the council’s sacking.

Clover Moore easily defeated Lee for the lord mayoralty in 2004, and her independent team also won four out of nine seats on the council, giving Moore five out of ten seats, which was enough to govern with her casting vote. Labor won three seats, with the Greens and Liberal Party each winning one.

Moore’s team won a second term in 2008, and won an additional seat on the council. The opposition consisted of two Greens councillors, and one each from Labor and the Liberal Party.

Moore won a third term as lord mayor in 2012, despite a swing against her team. Moore’s team held four out of nine council seats, alongside two Liberals, one Labor councillor, one Green and one from the Living Sydney party, which had previously been led by Frank Sartor.

Moore was forced to resign from state parliament to run again in 2012, due to a law change prohibiting sitting state MPs from running for local council. Her state seat of Sydney was easily won by her independent ally Alex Greenwich.

The election law covering the City of Sydney was changed following the 2012 election. Local businesses were already entitled to vote in council elections, but only had one vote and were not required to enrol or vote. The law was changed to make voting for businesses compulsory, and to give each business two votes. This was seen as an obvious strategy to remove Moore from town hall.

Clover Moore strengthened her position at the 2016 election, gaining a 6.55% swing on the mayoral primary vote and a 9% swing on the council primary vote, and gaining a fifth council seat in addition to her mayoral vote.

The Greens vote crashed and they lost their single seat, while all the other parties kept the same numbers: two Liberals, one Labor and Angela Vithoulkas re-elected for Sydney Matters.

The 2016 deputy mayoral election was won by Kerryn Phelps, who had been second to Moore on the party ticket. But Phelps broke with Moore in mid 2017 and left the party.

The Clover Moore Team has retained a working majority since 2017, particularly with the help of Labor’s Linda Scott. Jess Miller won the deputy lord mayoralty in 2017, followed by Linda Scott in 2018 and Jess Scully in 2019 and 2020, although the 2020 vote was a tie vote, with all of the non-Moore councillors voting for Angela Vithoulkas.

The 2021 election again saw a downturn in support for Clover Moore, suffering a 15% swing on the mayoral vote and a 14% swing on the council vote. She still won the mayoral election with ease, and won another four seats on council.

Moore’s deputy Jess Scully was re-elected to the office in December 2021 with the support of new Greens councillor Sylvie Ellsmore in a 6-3 vote. In September 2022, Ellsmore succeeded Scully, winning in a 7-3 vote. Ellsmore held the job for a year before Moore party member Robert Kok won the job unopposed in September 2023.

Council control
Clover Moore’s party holds five out of ten seats on the council. With Moore’s casting vote, this would normally be enough to control the council when all councillors are present. But the Moore party has worked with Greens councillor Sylvie Ellsmore, including electing her for one year as deputy lord mayor, solidifying their control of the council.

Candidate summary
Seven groups are running above the line and with an affiliated mayoral candidate, who is always the #1 council candidate for that group:

Susan Ritchie and Baiyu Chen are both running for lord mayor and as ungrouped candidates for council.

Assessment
Clover Moore remains a dominant figure in City politics and it seems most likely that she will again be easily re-elected in 2024 with four or five other colleagues, as has happened at the last five elections. It is not clear what Moore’s eventual succession plan will be – Jess Scully looked like a feasible replacement during her time as deputy lord mayor but she retired from council in 2023.

2021 council election result

Party Votes % Swing Seats won
Clover Moore Team 47,877 40.8 -14.1 4
Liberal 20,432 17.4 -2.3 2
Labor 18,077 15.4 +3.8 1
Greens 12,972 11.1 +5.1 1
Yvonne Weldon 10,577 9.0 +9.0 1
Small Business Party 7,219 6.2 -1.2
Other independents 208 0.2 -0.2
Informal 3,378 2.8

2021 mayoral election result

Candidate Party Votes % Swing
Clover Moore Independent 50,896 43.0 -14.9
Shauna Jarrett Liberal 17,891 15.1 -3.9
Linda Scott Labor 17,367 14.7 +4.2
Yvonne Weldon Independent 14,368 12.1 +12.1
Sylvie Ellsmore Greens 9,812 8.3 +3.2
Angela Vithoulkas Small Business Party 8,177 6.9 -0.8
Informal 1,675 1.4

2021 mayoral election two-candidate-preferred result

Candidate Party Votes %
Clover Moore Independent 60,926 67.9
Linda Scott Labor 28,786 32.1
Exhausted 28,799

Booth breakdown

Since there are no wards in the City of Sydney, I have split booths into four arbitrary divisions:

  • North-East – CBD, Surry Hills, Wooloomoolloo, Kings Cross, Darlinghurst
  • North-West – Glebe, Pyrmont, Ultimo
  • South-East – Redfern, Waterloo, Rosebery, Zetland
  • South-West – Newtown, Erskineville

Clover Moore’s vote is highest in the north-east, and weakest in the south-east.

The Labor vote was highest in the south-east and south-west, and lowest in the north-east.

The Greens vote is highest in the west of the council, particularly the south-west.

The Liberal vote is highest in the north-east and lowest in the south-west.

Council results breakdown

Voter group CMT % LIB % ALP % GRN % Formal votes %
North-East 46.8 15.2 12.7 9.5 25.9
South-East 39.1 12.7 18.7 11.2 19.2
North-West 40.3 11.7 17.0 13.5 18.0
South-West 40.5 6.5 19.3 19.5 11.8
Pre-poll 40.5 20.5 15.1 10.1 91.7
Other votes 37.2 21.6 14.0 10.3 23.6

Mayoral results breakdown

Voter group CM % LIB % ALP % YW % Formal votes %
North-East 48.0 12.9 12.2 14.0 13.8
South-East 39.8 10.8 18.0 16.8 10.3
North-West 41.5 10.1 15.8 16.2 9.5
South-West 42.7 5.5 18.5 16.5 6.2
Pre-poll 43.5 17.8 14.3 9.4 48.2
Other votes 38.8 19.2 13.3 11.4 12.0

Election results at the 2021 City of Sydney election
Toggle between primary votes for the Clover Moore Team, Liberal Party, Labor and Sydney Matters.

Election results at the 2021 City of Sydney mayoral election
Toggle between primary votes for Clover Moore, the Liberal Party, Labor, independent candidate Yvonne Weldon and the Greens.

Candidates – Lord Mayor

Candidates – Council

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12 COMMENTS

  1. Honestly, Clover Moore needs a replacement and it doesn’t look like Labor, the Liberals or the Greens are going to beat her. I guess Sydneysiders will just have to wait for her to retire.

  3. We need term limits. 20 years is a long time and she will be the oldest mayor any major city in Australia has had. She will be over 80 at the end of the next term.

    Term limits should be legislated by the state government for mayors since Premiers/Prime Ministers never serve this long nowadays.

    Personally I think to avoid a Labour/Green or Liberal mayor. have a teal run for mayor. What if Zali Stegall someday become mayor? or Allegra Spender. Would be easier if they lose their seats or retire in federal parliament. I can see Zali getting allot done if she was mayor of Sydney.

    Alternatively have Malcolm Turnbull. He is a Liberal but he isn’t right-wing, would fit perfect for the city, His wife Lucy was lord mayor previously for a little while.

    Few names out there that are not extreme-left or extreme-right.

    Under OPV it is hard to defeat Clover Moore on 43% of the primary vote for her, the other parties are splitting the vote too much. Labor and the Greens should bow out and support Turnbull or a teal in future to give them a fighting chance of defeating the incumbent mayor.

  4. @Daniel T Malcolm Turnbull would be a good choice for Lord Mayor but I think he lives outside the LGA.

  5. Over many years, the best Labor can manage ? One seat ! The council, developers do not seem to worry much & neither do the mega rich…….

  6. Part of Clover’s strength is that while about half of voters support someone else, she sits in the middle of the spectrum. Why on earth would Labor and the Greens back in someone further right than Moore when they probably agree with them less? Likewise the Liberals aren’t going to back a Greens mayor. I think that’s far more relevant than OPV.

  7. Clover Moore is centrist or centre-left like her ally Alex Greenwich, the state member for Sydney.

    I wonder if when Tanya Plibersek retires Alex will run for Sydney. I don’t think Sydney will be a Greens seat (they only just started to finish second), but Grayndler will be when Anthony Albanese retires.

    Labor only just started to finish second to Greenwich in Sydney (previously the Liberals did, and on notional TPP they beat Labor), while the Greens only just started to finish second to Labor (previously the Liberals did). A few parts of the Sydney CBD are small-l-liberal like Millers Point, Pyrmont, etc whereas Grayndler is almost entirely just a solidly left-wing seat.

  8. @NP
    Sydney has a higher Liberal Primary vote than Grayndler as you correctly pointed. There are some pockets of Liberal vote in Grayndler like Ashbury/Haberfield but not enough to win booths. However, i still feel canadiate quality is important to see if Greens win Grayndler and also Liberal preferences will still be important.

  9. Agree with comments above that Clover Moore as a relatively middle-ground independent can pick up preferences from across the aisle. It tends to happen for Labor/Greens to keep the Liberals out and vice versa. Alex Greenwich could be a potential successor of Clover. He’s built up his profile over several state elections.

    Malcolm Turnbull as an option? I think with his parliamentary pension, he’d rather stay put. Also, I doubt a former PM would want to run for mayor.

    @Nimalan, The AEC’s proposed redistribution will cut out the Balmain peninsula, including Rozelle, from Grayndler and will go west to take up traditionally Labor suburbs e.g. Ashbury, Enfield. This would strengthen Labor’s vote and could make it an ALP vs LIB contest.

  12. Clover Moore is mayor because of an alp stuff up long ago. The boundaries were changed to bring in South Sydney residents it was thought that the alp candidate Michael Lee could beat the liberals as a right wing contender. But they were beaten by a left wing candidate Clover Moore. I think she is in her seventies now so soon she must look at retiring…. this then would change the dynamics of any contest

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