The City of Melbourne covers central parts of Melbourne, mostly on the north side of the Yarra River. The city covers the Melbourne central business district, Carlton, Docklands, North Melbourne, Kensington, West Melbourne and parts of South Yarra, Southbank, Parkville and Flemington.
The council had a population of 149,615 as of the 2021 census.
- Wards
- Redistribution
- Incumbent councillors
- History
- Council control
- Candidate summary
- Assessment
- 2020 results
- Preference flows
Wards
The City of Melbourne is not divided into wards. It is the only local government area in the Melbourne urban area not divided into wards.
- Lord Mayor – Nick Reece1
- Deputy Lord Mayor – Vacant
| Olivia Ball (Greens) | Davydd Griffiths (Labor) | Rohan Leppert (Greens) |
| Roshena Campbell (Team Capp) | Jamal Hakim (Team Hakim) | Kevin Louey (Team Capp) |
| Jason Chang (Team Wood) | Philip Le Liu (Bring Back Melbourne) | Elizabeth O’Sullivan Myles2 (Back to Business) |
1Nick Reece was elected as deputy lord mayor as part of Sally Capp’s team but assumed the mayoralty in June 2024 upon Capp’s resignation.
2Councillor O’Sullivan Myles was elected as Elizabeth Doidge but has since changed her name.
History
The City of Melbourne was created in 1842 as a town, and became a city in 1847.
The City’s councillors were previously elected to represent wards, but since 2001 the entire council has been elected at large to represent the whole council. The lord mayor has been directly elected since 2001.
John So won the mayoralty in 2001, and held the role until his retirement in 2008.
Former state Liberal leader Robert Doyle moved to local government in 2008, winning the mayoralty. He was re-elected in 2012 and 2016.
Doyle resigned from the mayoralty in 2018 after sexual harrassment allegations. A subsequent mayoral by-election was won by Sally Capp, who went on to win a full term in 2020.
Capp resigned in 2024 in the lead-up to the council election, making room for her deputy Nick Reece to take on the mayoralty.
Council control
No information.
Candidate summary
There are sixteen groups running for council, and eleven of those groups are running a ticket for lord mayor and deputy lord mayor.
Labor, Greens and Liberals are all running a full ticket. Incumbent lord mayor Nick Reece is running his own ticket, with fellow Team Capp member Roshena Campbell running as his deputy.
Former deputy lord mayor Arron Wood is also running his own team.
Sitting councillor Jamal Hakim, who was elected with a tiny primary vote and very favourable preference flows, is the only other sitting councillor to challenge the Reece/Campbell ticket on the mayoral ballot.
Sitting councillors Rohan Leppert, Jason Chang and Elizabeth O’Sullivan Myles are not running for re-election.
Assessment
Reece is new to the role of lord mayor and is largely untested, but he is a successor to previous lord mayors who have attracted votes from the very large business vote in the City of Melbourne.
The Greens always do well but generally aren’t a threat for the mayoralty, but will have a shot at winning two seats.
It’s worth noting that the City of Melbourne is the only local council in the country to use group voting tickets for its council. The sixteen groups creates a great amount of potential for someone to win off a small primary vote with preference harvesting. Team Hakim won a seat with just 0.4% in 2020, and someone could do that again in 2024.
| Candidate | Party | Votes | % | Swing |
| Sally Capp Nicholas Reece |
Team Sally Capp | 27,949 | 31.6 | +31.6 |
| Apsara Sabaratnam Roxane Ingleton |
Greens | 14,753 | 16.7 | -4.6 |
| Arron Wood Lisa Teh |
Team Arron Wood | 13,497 | 15.3 | -29.3 |
| Nick Russian Michael Burge |
Bring Back Melbourne | 8,976 | 10.1 | +10.1 |
| Philip Reed Wesa Chau |
Labor | 8,355 | 9.4 | +9.4 |
| Jennifer Yang Sandra Gee |
Back to Business | 8,219 | 9.3 | +9.3 |
| Kath Larkin Daniel Nair Dadich |
Victorian Socialists | 2,911 | 3.3 | +3.3 |
| Gary Morgan Mary-Lou Howie |
Morgan-Watts Team | 2,446 | 2.8 | -4.0 |
| Wayne Tseng Gricol Yang |
Team Zorin | 1,329 | 1.5 | +1.5 |
| Informal | 3,096 | 3.4 | -0.2 |
2020 leadership team two-candidate-preferred result
| Candidate | Party | Votes | % |
| Sally Capp Nicholas Reece |
Team Sally Capp | 47,257 | 53.4 |
| Arron Wood Lisa Teh |
Team Arron Wood | 41,178 | 46.6 |
2020 council results
| Party | Votes | % | Seats won |
| Team Sally Capp | 24,395 | 27.2 | 2 |
| Greens | 14,602 | 16.3 | 2 |
| Team Arron Wood | 12,187 | 13.6 | 1 |
| Labor | 10,626 | 11.9 | 1 |
| Bring Back Melbourne | 6,683 | 7.5 | 1 |
| Back to Business | 6,572 | 7.3 | 1 |
| Liberal Democrats | 5,064 | 5.7 | |
| Morgan-Watts Team | 1,541 | 1.7 | |
| Victorian Socialists | 1,441 | 1.6 | |
| Sustainable Australia | 1,361 | 1.5 | |
| Animal Justice | 1,251 | 1.4 | |
| Residents First | 1,110 | 1.2 | |
| Innovate Melbourne | 817 | 0.9 | |
| Team Hakim | 379 | 0.4 | 1 |
| Melbourne – We All Matter | 374 | 0.4 | |
| Artemis Pattichi | 351 | 0.4 | |
| Your Melbourne Team | 291 | 0.3 | |
| It Will Be Okay Melbourne | 203 | 0.2 | |
| Ungrouped | 332 | 0.4 | |
| Informal | 1,686 | 1.8 |
Preference flows
Five seats were filled on primary votes with full quotas: two for Team Capp and one each for the Greens, Labor and Team Wood.
After the distribution of their quotas and the exclusion of minor candidates from each group, the leading contenders for the remaining four seats were:
- Philip Le Liu – 0.749
- Elizabeth Doidge – 0.735
- Mark McMillan – 0.716
- Olivia Ball – 0.631
- Paul Silverberg – 0.588
- Peter Clarke – 0.357
Eleven other candidates were sitting on less than 0.2 quotas, with Jamal Hakim on just 0.046 quotas. Just two other candidates had a lower vote than Hakim.
Hakim quickly accumulated preferences from those ranked below him, so after five more candidates were excluded he was on 0.3 quotas:
- Le Liu – 0.753
- Doidge – 0.738
- McMillan – 0.720
- Ball – 0.644
- Silverberg – 0.591
- Clarke – 0.367
- Hakim – 0.304
After three more exclusions, one other minor candidate Rabin Bangaar did well on preferences when he was close to being excluded, but Hakim had started overtaking higher-polling candidates:
- Le Liu – 0.760
- Doidge – 0.741
- McMillan – 0.724
- Ball – 0.672
- Silverberg – 0.596
- Clarke – 0.532
- Hakim – 0.449
- Bangaar – 0.314
- Delahunty – 0.202
Labor preferences from Delahunty partly flowed to Hakim and pushed him into fifth place:
- Le Liu – 0.762
- Doidge – 0.752
- McMillan – 0.732
- Ball – 0.691
- Hakim – 0.600
- Silverberg – 0.597
- Clarke – 0.540
- Bangaar – 0.318
Bangaar’s preferences pushed Hakim into second place:
- Le Liu – 0.763
- Hakim – 0.761
- Doidge – 0.754
- McMillan – 0.734
- Silverberg – 0.733
- Ball – 0.704
- Clarke – 0.542
Clarke’s preferences pushed the Greens’ Ball to the sixth seat:
- Ball – 1.042
- Le Liu – 0.932
- Hakim – 0.766
- Doidge – 0.767
- McMillan – 0.745
- Silverberg – 0.736
Silverberg was then excluded, electing Le Liu to the seventh seat and pushing Hakim into the lead for one of the last two seats:
- Le Liu – 1.483
- Hakim – 0.927
- Doidge – 0.824
- McMillan – 0.754
Le Liu’s preferences elected both Hakim and Doidge:
- Hakim – 1.159
- Doidge – 1.014
- McMillan – 0.815
Candidates – Leadership Team
- Anthony Van Der Craats / David Keith Cragg (Rip Up The Bike Lanes)
- Eylem Kim / Bruce Poon (Animal Justice)
- Cr Jamal Hakim / Esther Anatolitis (Team Hakim)
- Cr Nick Reece / Cr Roshena Campbell (Team Nick Reece)
- Gary Morgan / Liz Ge (Team Morgan)
- Anthony Koutoufides / Intaj Khan (Team Kouta)
- Mariam Riza / Luke Martin (Liberal)
- Arron Wood / Erin Deering (Team Wood)
- Roxane Ingleton / Marley McRae McLeod (Greens)
- Greg Bisinella / Megan Stevenson (Voices for Melbourne)
- Phil Reed / Virginia Wills (Labor)
Candidates – Councillors
- Team Wood
- Cr Philip Le Liu
- Cathy Oke
- Nicolas Paul Zervos
- Hala Nur
- Michael-Lee Caiafa
- Hope Lai Wei
- Steve Michelson
- Team Morgan
- Rafael Camillo
- William Caldwell
- Voices for Melbourne
- Mary Masters
- James Vasilev-Robertson
- Team Hakim
- Michael Smith
- Lawrence Lam
- Judy Gao
- Team Kouta
- Gladys Liu
- Zaim Ramani
- Emma Elizabeth Carney
- Olivia Tjandramulia
- Rip Up The Bike Lanes
- Sandra Gee
- Pratap Singh
- Team Participate
- Asako Saito
- Sam Janda
- Animal Justice
- Aashna Katyal
- Rabin Bangaar
- Innovate Melbourne
- Andrew Rowse
- Jesse Greenwood
- Liberal
- Owen Guest
- You Li Liston
- Labor
- Cr Davydd Griffiths
- Sainab Abdi Sheikh
- Michael Aleisi
- Your Voice Matters To Me
- Krystle Mitchell
- Jayden Durbin
- Greens
- Cr Olivia Ball
- Aaron Moon
- Barry Berih
- Team Elvis Martin
- Elvis Martin
- Sophy Galbally
- Mavi Mujral
- Jing Lin
- Paul James Moore
- Melissa Rymer
- James Cullen
- Carole Kenny-Sarasa
- Team Nick Reece
- Cr Kevin Louey
- Mark Scott
- Lisa Teh
- Jannine Pattison
- Hamdi Ali
- Suzanne Stanley
- Simone Hartley-Keane
- Victorian Socialists
- Daniel Nair Dadich
- Ben Fok
- Ungrouped
- E. Send
- Jake Land
- Aishwarya Kansakar
- Mohamed Yusuf
- Callum John French
who will win do we think?
Based on advertising in the City possibly either Team Kouta, Team Reece or Team Wood. With no polling etc hard to predict
The Most posters in the CBD I have seen is for team morgan. I doubt it means much.
The way City of Melbourne council is elected really needs to be revamped.
The only council using GTV which should just not exist anywhere; and the fact that businesses get 2 votes and residents only 1 seems extremely unfair.
It may have made sense a long time ago when City of Melbourne was really more a destination for non-residents, and was only residential in pockets like East Melbourne & Carlton. But with so much residential development in the Docklands, Southbank, West Melbourne, Kensington and the CBD itself over the past 20 years, it has changed; and it just doesn’t feel fair that someone who most lives, works/studies and shops there only has half the influence of someone who runs a shop.
Good point, Trent the residential population has exploded another area of growth is the St Kilda Road area with a lot of Penthouses etc. One thing is that areas like the CBD do not have many voters as they have a lot if international students and expats. Melbourne council is one of the fastest growing LGAs in Victoria.
Assessment on this site is extreme Pro Green bias and heavily censored
The method of counting the Council vote is outdated and flawed it does not represent the voters choice,
The only group that is likely to secure two councilor seats is Team Reece, The major Parties (Liberal Green Labor) will each get around 11-13% of the vote, The Greens will only secure one seat
The interesting thing you mention about the area having lots of international students and expats, is that they actually can vote.
For the City of Melbourne you don’t have to be a citizen to vote. If you’re an international student renting in private student accommodation, you can enrol and vote. If there are any campaigns to encourage this happening I am not sure. But my friend, a non-citizen renter on a temporary visa, is voting!
Nice to hear from you Anthony.
Nimalan, yeah I looked up the population stats today and City of Melbourne grew from 38,000 to 150,000 in 30 years (1991-2021).
The council amalgamations did happen in that time but City of Melbourne barely changed and even in 1996 I think it was still only about 50,000.
That’s just a completely different profile now compared to back when the rule of businesses getting 2 votes is from. It may have made sense then, but not now.
Will the Greens win every ward here?
Oh wait Melbourne doesn’t have wards. Will they win the Lord Mayor though? If they do they’ll probably change the title to just Mayor because they’re fiercely anti-monarchy (Jonathan Sri, the Greens candidate for Lord Mayor of Brisbane, said he would change the title if elected Lord Mayor, which he never was).
If the voting was one vote per enrolled voter, I think the Greens would be favourites to win (albeit it closer than at state / federal level due to the non-resident vote).
But City of Melbourne has 2 votes per business owner and 1 vote per resident which likely locks the Greens out of winning.
One thing I’m not sure about though is whether non-resident enrolments became optional / not automatical here like they did in every other council. Other councils have seen a 90% reduction in non-resident enrolments as a result. A big reduction in City of Melbourne too might change the dynamic a bit, although I doubt it would be as much of a reduction as in other councils.
Automatical? Don’t even know how I ended up with that! Automatic.
@ Trent,
Yes i have looked up the current boundaries date from 1993 so from a 25 year period the population has tripled much faster than the Greater Melbourne, Victoria and Australian population growth rates.
Nick Reece has retained the lord mayoralty, with Roshena Campbell as deputy mayor.
Interestingly but former Liberal MP for Chisholm Gladys Liu has been elected to council on Anthony Koutoufides’ ticket.
Source: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-11-07/city-of-melbourne-local-government-election-nick-reece/104572818
@James what’s she doing running here? This isn’t even near Chisholm.
@NP – No clue. She seemingly has resigned from the Liberals, no reason I could find. Potentially over the trouble caused while she was an MP. Or potentially with Peter Dutton’s leadership.
Would you call Nick Reece and and Rosanna Campbell ticket the Purple Party?
So Reece ran against a Labor ticket but retains his membership? That’s highly unusual. Anyone can explain what happened?
@LNPinsider Not just him, van der Craats (RUTBL) also seems to be ALP and Khan (Team Kouta) seems to be a Liberal, despite both of them running on separate tickets. The VEC annoyingly doesn’t record party membership without official endorsements. There’s usually very little ALP endorsement in Victorian local elections, with only a few councils being exceptions – this is also the first ever time the Liberals have officially endorsed any candidates in Victorian councils. So I’m assuming neither party really cares about members running as “independent” candidates, as long as they don’t interfere with membership responsibilities nor claim to act on the party’s behalf.
It’s definitely a weird and opaque system used by the VEC though, not sure why party membership doesn’t have to be stated for conflict-of-interest purposes.
You don’t need to live in the City of Melbourne to run or be elected. Jennifer Yang who ran against Gladys Liu in 2019 had been a Manningham councillor and had a few cracks at Melbourne City Council.
@Malben here in Queensland it is required by law to have a register of interests form filled out which is publicly available online. One thing you have to disclose in it is your membership of organisations, both political and non-political ones. This includes parties, unions, clubs, associations, etc.
It used to be the case, that ALP members running against endorsed ALP tickets needed to get permission to run from the party in Victoria. Also the local ALP members could recommend that this occur