The City of Hume covers areas in the north-west of the Melbourne urban area.
The council covers Craigieburn, Sunbury, Roxburgh Park, Greenvale, Mickleham and Broadmeadows. The council had a population of 243,901 as of the 2021 census.
- Wards
- Redistribution
- Incumbent councillors
- History
- Candidate summary
- Assessment
- Voting trends by ward
Wards
The City of Hume will be divided into eleven single-member wards as of 2024:
- Aitken – in the east, covering parts of Craigieburn.
- Bababi Marning – in the south-east, covering Campbellfield, Coolaroo and Meadow Heights.
- Burt-Kur-Min – in the east, covering parts of Craigieburn and Yuroke.
- Emu Creek – in the north-west, covering parts of Sunbury and rural areas to the north.
- Jacksons Hill – in the south-west, covering parts of Sunbury and rural areas to the south.
- Merlynston Creek – in the south-east, covering Broadmeadows, Dallas, Jacana and parts of Westmeadows.
- Mount Ridley – in the east, covering northern parts of Craigieburn.
- Roxburgh Park – in the east, covering Roxburgh Park and Somerton.
- Tullamarine – in the south, covering Melbourne Airport, Attwood, Gladstone Park, Tullamarine and parts of Westmeadows.
- Woodlands – in the centre, covering Greenvale.
- Yubup – in the north-east, covering Kalkallo and Mickleham.
Redistribution
The council previously consisted of three wards, electing eleven councillors. The Jackson Creek Ward elected three members, while the Aitken and Meadow Valley wards each elected four.
The north-eastern Aitken ward covered the entire new Aitken, Burt-Kur-Min, Mount Ridley, Roxburgh Park and Yubup wards, and parts of the new Bababi Marning and Woodlands wards.
The western Jacksons Hill ward covered the entire new Emu Creek and Jacksons Hill wards in the Sunbury area, along with the Melbourne Airport now contained in the new Tullamarine ward.
The south-eastern Meadow Valley ward covered the entire new Merlynston Creek ward, most of the population in the new Tullamarine ward, and parts of the new Bababi Marning and Woodlands wards.
| Aitken | Jacksons Creek | Meadow Valley |
| Joseph Haweil | Jarrod Bell | Chris Hollow |
| Jodi Jackson | Trevor Dance | Naim Kurt |
| Carly Moore | Jack Medcraft | Sam Misho |
| Jim Overend | Karen Sherry |
History
The City of Hume was created in 1994 out of parts of the City of Broadmeadows, the Shire of Bulla, the City of Keilor and the City of Whittlesea.
In the 2000s the council used an electoral structure of four wards, with one three-member ward and three two-member wards, for a total of nine councillors.
In 2012, the council was expanded to eleven seats, with the wards reorganised into a single three-member ward and two four-member wards.
The last election produced a council consisting entirely of independents.
The last four years have seen mayoral elections be entirely unopposed. Joseph Haweil took the job in 2020 and 2022, with Carly Moore taking the job in 2021 (after serving two years in the previous term), and Naim Kurt taking over at the end of 2023.
Candidate summary
Councillor Chris Hollow is not running for re-election.
The Greens and Victorian Socialists are each running two candidates, while everyone else is unendorsed.
Assessment
Hume is dominated by independents so is unlikely to have a recognisable factional or partisan contest in 2024.
Voting trends by ward
In order to understand the relative political position of each ward, I have estimated the results of the 2022 federal election in each ward.
On a two-party-preferred basis, Labor won every ward. The Labor vote was generally stronger in the more urbanised eastern part of the council, while Labor’s vote was weaker in the Sunbury-area wards.
Candidates – Aitken Ward
- Cr Carly Moore
- Gurpreet Singh
- Harsimran Kaur
Candidates – Bababi Marning Ward
- Ozcan Oztas
- John Haddad
- Sema N. Bolat
- Graeme David Marr
- Asif Naeem
- Burhan Yigit
Candidates – Burt-kur-min Ward
- Hussam Mestou
- Sarwan Singh Sandhu
- Jo Hardie
- Gurpreet Singh Mann
- Manoj Kumar
- Avonjot Singh
- Manisha Garg
- Sabahat Farooq
- Cr Jim Overend
Candidates – Emu Creek Ward
- Cr Jack Medcraft
- Cr Trevor Dance
- Kate Hamley
Candidates – Jacksons Hill Ward
- Natalie Harrison
- Cr Jarrod Bell
- John Karagiannidis
Candidates – Merlynston Creek Ward
- Joe Aguilus
- Mutullah Can Yolbulan (Victorian Socialists)
- Shahnoor Shah (Greens)
- Yesim Kuluk
- Ibrahim Gocol
- Bassima Hawli
- Sheena Haweil
- Micaela Griffiths
- Cr Karen Sherry
Candidates – Mount Ridley Ward
- Amarjeet Singh Bhullar
- Marcus Harrington
- Venkata Ambati
- Ricky Rataul Singh
- Ananta Raj Poudel
- Daniel English
- Raj Mann
Candidates – Roxburgh Park Ward
- Yasir Mahmud
- Phillip Di Biase
- Sargon Thomas
- Muhammad Nisar Ul Murtaza (Greens)
- Roshan Silva
- David Williams (Victorian Socialists)
- Aleyna Mimi
- Drew Jessop
- Muhtadi Albandar
- Cr Sam Misho
- Sahar Ageed
Candidates – Tullamarine Ward
- Cr Jodi Jackson
- Linda Hanna
- Cr Naim Kurt
Candidates – Woodlands Ward
- Steve Gagen
- Lalith Udugampala
- Khalid Hussain
- Adem Atmaca
- Assaad Eddie Issa
- Cr Joseph Haweil
Candidates – Yubup Ward
- Vikein Mouradian
- Muhammad Shahzad
- Guri Singh
- Sahib Singh
- Ally Watson
- Emily Greco
- Ravneet Singh Sohi
There is an unofficial partisan nature of the Council that requires a degree of local knowledge to get a handle of.
The Council is controlled by members of the Labor Party with Joseph Haweil, Carly Moore, Jarrod Bell, Chris Hollow, Naim Kurt and Karen Sherry all being members of the party.
Jack Medcraft and Sam Misho are independents that get along with the ALP plurality on council.
Trevor Dance was affiliated with the UAP and continues to represent a strong right-wing populist view, Jim Overend is a member of the Liberal Party and Jodi Jackson is an independent who does not get along with the ALP plurality on Council.
This means that Labor and its allies have 8 seats on Council and the ‘opposition’ have 3 seats.
What this means for the contest in November is not exactly clear.
I’m running as an independent candidate for Emu Creek Ward this year. I’m looking forward to serving our wonderful and diverse community 🙂
My name is Sam Misho and a current councillor. I respect all my fellow councillors and recognise that I have to work with them to get things done. I am independent as independent can be.
I have argued matters. I lost some and won others. Some I got through after fighting for weeks if not months.
Not surprised to see Carly Moore re-elected, but a little shocked that she reportedly is on about 85% of the vote in Aitken ward
So the results are in!
On the partisan nature of the Council, the results look to be as follows:
Labor – 7 (+1)
Liberal – 1 (=)
Independent – 3 (-1)
When considering the voting blocs on Council, the ‘Opposition’ bloc saw 2 of its councillors defeated. One of Labor’s allies was defeated but replaced that vote with an expanded number of Labor councillors. There are two new Independents elected this Council as well so not clear yet how they’ll interact with the other Councillors.
All said and done Labor, once again, has a clear majority on the Council and you can expect all Mayoral candidates to come from the 7 Labor Councillors, I don’t gamble because I am usually wrong however at the onset I’d place my money on Naim Kurt, Karen Sherry and Daniel English to be the front runners to hold the Mayoralty at some point over the next 4 years.
For some observations:
Of the 11 incumbent councillors, 10 ran for re-election in 8 wards with 1 incumbent retiring. 4 incumbents where defeated and 6 got elected. 3 wards had no incumbent running and broke Labor 2-1 Independent.
In 2 wards there were 2 incumbents: Jodi Jackson and Naim Kurt in Tullamarine Ward, and Jack Medcraft and Trevor Dance in Emu Creek Ward.
Kurt (ALP) a popular local councillor and the Mayor for 2024 comfortably defeated Jackson (IND), an Opposition bloc aligned member on Council, on first preferences alone.
Things get interesting in Emu Creek, Medcraft (IND) is a Labor ally and long-term member on Council. Dance (IND) is a former UAP member and a loud critic of the Labor majority. In a surprise result, Dance came last and although Medcraft won the primary vote, he was defeated by Kate Hamley on preferences. This is the only ward in Hume where the first-place candidate didn’t win the ward overall.
The other defeated incumbent was Joseph Haweil (ALP) in Woodlands Ward losing to fellow ALP member Steve Gagen. Haweil’s loss was a little bit of a surprise given he is a two-time Mayor this term (in 2021 and 2023) and one of the leading figures in Hume Labor alongside Carly Moore.
Briefly touching on the other incumbents who won their wards, Carly Moore (ALP) won Aitken Ward by a truly ridiculous 84% of the vote. Jim Overend (LIB) won Burt-kur-min Ward and is the only member of the Opposition bloc in the last Council to win his seat. Jarrod Bell (ALP) won Jacksons Hill Ward by an extremely tight margin of 8 votes – that means Sunbury was 5 votes away from unseating all 3 incumbent councillors.
Karen Sherry (ALP) won Merlynston Creek Ward and will be a third term Councillor, the only other incumbent to be on Council that long is Moore. Sam Misho (IND) beat out 10 rivals in Roxburgh Park Ward including Drew Jessop (ALP), a former Mayor who was defeated in 2020 attempting to make a comeback.
Joining them will be John Haddad (ALP) in Bababi Marning Ward, Ally Watson (IND) in Yubup Ward and Daniel English (ALP) in Mount Ridley Ward who, interestingly, had the highest vote of any non-incumbent and the second highest vote share of any candidate. He is also the husband of Casey Nunn, a former Mayor of Hume, and the brother-in-law to Carly Moore.
I’m still going through the numbers and reaching out to contacts to understand the behind-the-scene politics, may have further comments in future.
@Kate Hamley @Sam misho – Congratulations on your elections as councillors for Emu Creek and Roxburgh Park Wards respectively!
Kicking myself after Cr Jarred Bell was elected as the new Mayor for Hume with Naim Kurt as Deputy Mayor. I originally had Bell written as an outside chance as I do rate English and Sherry’s chances as being better than Bell’s, but as someone who is a rising star in the ALP and has ambitions for state politics I shouldn’t be surprised.