The City of Stonnington covers suburbs in the inner east of Melbourne, including Malvern East, Toorak, Prahran, Malvern, Armadale and parts of Glen Iris, South Yarra and Windsor.
The council had a population of 104,703 as of the 2021 census.
- Wards
- Redistribution
- Incumbent councillors
- History
- Council control
- Candidate summary
- Assessment
- Voting trends by ward
Wards
The City of Stonnington will be divided into nine single-member wards as of 2024:
- Como – in the north-west, covering parts of South Yarra.
- Greville – in the south-west, covering Windsor and part of Prahran.
- Hedgeley Dene – in the east, covering parts of Glen Iris and Malvern East.
- Malvern Valley – in the south-east, covering parts of Malvern East.
- Orrong – in the south-west, covering parts of Prahran and Armadale.
- South Yarra – in the north-west, covering the southern half of South Yarra.
- Toorak – in the north, covering most of Toorak.
- Tooronga – in the north-east, covering parts of Glen Iris, Kooyong and Malvern.
- Wattletree – in the centre, covering parts of Armadale and Malvern.
Redistribution
The council previously consisted of three wards, electing nine councillors. Each ward elected three councillors.
The East ward covered the entire new Hedgeley Dene and Malvern Valley wards and parts of the new Tooronga and Wattletree wards.
The North ward covered the entirety of the new Como, South Yarra and Toorak wards and parts of the new Tooronga ward.
The South ward covered the entirety of the new Greville and Orrong wards, most of the new Wattletree ward and a small part of the Tooronga ward.
| East | North | South |
| Joe Gianfriddo (Independent)1 | Marcia Griffin (Ind. Liberal) | Nicki Batagol (Ind) |
| Jami Klisaris (Ind. Labor) | Kate Hely (Independent) | Mike Scott (Greens) |
| Polly Morgan (Greens) | Matthew Koce (Ind. Liberal) | Melina Sehr (Ind) |
1Joe Gianfriddo replaced Alexander Lew following a countback in 2023.
History
The City of Stonnington was created in 1994, replacing the cities of Malvern and Prahran.
The council was elected from nine single-member wards until 2004. The council was elected from three wards of three councillors each until 2024.
Council control
The current term has seen Kate Hely as mayor for one year, Jami Klisaris for two years, and then Joe Gianfriddo for one year.
There are a number of fluid groups on the council – Gianfriddo and Griffin are on the right, and in 2023 formed an alliance with teal-leaning independents Hely and Batagol along with Greens councillor Scott to elect Gianfriddo as mayor.
On the other side, Labor councillor Klisaris and Greens councillor Morgan are joined by moderate Liberal councillor Koce and have also worked with independent councillor Sehr.
Prior to the 2023 mayoral election, Alexander Lew was also a right-wing member of council but was perpetually in minority, and ended up resigning from council and being replaced by Gianfriddo. It appears that a larger centre/centre-left grouping had won mayoral elections in 2020, 2021 and 2022.
Candidate summary
Councillor Matthew Koce is not running for re-election.
The Greens are running in five wards, the Victorian Socialists in two, and the Libertarian Party in one ward.
Assessment
Stonnington is an area in flux with the Liberal Party losing ground at federal and state elections and with a strong Greens party. It will be interesting to see how these groups perform with single-member wards.
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.
The Liberal Party won the two-party-preferred vote for four wards in the centre of the council, while Labor won in the four westernmost wards along with Malvern Valley at the eastern end.
The Greens also did quite well, with a vote peaking at 31% in the Greville ward.
Candidates – Como Ward
- Luke Balasingam
- Clayton Doueihi (Victorian Socialists)
- Meghan Hopper
- Spencer James Millear
- Hamish Taylor (Greens)
Candidates – Greville Ward
- Cr Melina Sehr
- Francois Geraghty
- Cr Mike Scott (Greens)
- Susan Louey
- Alan Menadue
- Alison Baker
- Paul Francazio
Candidates – Hedgeley Dene Ward
- Josh Fast
- Claudio Bevilacqua
- Joel Iglicki
- Sally Davis
Candidates – Malvern Valley Ward
- Cr Jami Klisaris
- Cr Joe Gianfriddo
Candidates – Orrong Ward
- Henry Buch
- Samantha Choudhury
- Arkie Paten (Greens)
Candidates – South Yarra Ward
- Mitch Fuller (Greens)
- Julie Mclean
- Cr Kate Hely
Candidates – Toorak Ward
- Cr Marcia Griffin
- Tom Humphries
- David Segal (Libertarian)
- Lloyd Bickerton
Candidates – Tooronga Ward
- Peter Hammond
- Cr Polly Morgan (Greens)
- Jamie Bell
Candidates – Wattletree Ward
- Tammy Lidano
- Kerrie Nasser
- Steve Stefanopoulos
- Cr Nicki Batagol
- Allyssa Gardner (Victorian Socialists)
We can see why the Greens did not win Higgins in 2022 they only outpolled Labor west of Williams Road. For the Greens to have a chance the need to outpoll Labor in the areas between Williams Road and Burke Road (basically the Glenferrie Road Corridor). The Further East you go it is more middle class it becomes and classic ALP/GRN territory.
@Nimalan you mean Labor/Liberal territory, right?
@ NP
Yep sorry it was a typo Classic Labor/Lib territory
The Greens should be the favourite to win Greville Ward here and probably have a shot in South Yarra Ward too. If they win both of them it should at least match their result under the three-member proportional system, but I can’t see single-member wards really helping them increase their presence here at all, unlike Port Phillip where they’re now competitive in about 5 or 6 wards compared to having a ceiling of 3 seats under the proportional system.
It does not seem like there are any Labor candidates and wondering if they could win Malvern Valley ward.
In Stonnington, the Greens always had a chance of winning 1 of the 3 seats in each former ward:
– South pretty much being a guarantee due to Windsor/Prahran
– East being a very good chance because most of that territory is around 20-25% Greens
– North being the more iffy one due to Toorak having the lowest Greens vote
That’s exactly how it played out with them winning 1 each in South & East. But with the single-ward system, they really have no chance of getting above 50% after preferences anywhere east of Williams Road. So that keeps their ceiling at around 3 and their most likely number at 1-2.
Port Phillip is quite different. Previously they were almost guaranteed to win in both Canal & Lake (and they did) and a long shot in Gateway, which they didn’t win. So, basically the same situation as Stonnington.
But Port Phillip leaning more to the left means there are a lot more wards where they have a realistic chance of coming first among progressive candidates then getting above 50% on preferences: Alma, St Kilda, Balaclava, Elwood, Lakeside and South Melbourne (probably in that order of likelihood). So single-member wards I think will really benefit them there. Not that I think they will win 5-6 wards (maybe 3-4) but they are at least competitive in 6 which doubles their ceiling.
I think the backlash against the state government’s planning proposals regarding density would hurt Labor candidates in the more NIMBY councils like Stonnington, Boroondara and Bayside at the moment.
Only result I’ve seen so far for this council is Como Ward which covers the northern half of South Yarra and a little bit of Toorak, and it’s a really surprising one.
In what these days is mostly a Greens vs Liberals area where Labor run third, and here are the provisional results:
Meghan Hopper (ALP) – 35%
Hamish Taylor (GRN) – 23%
Luke Balasingham (IND) – 21%
Spencer James Millear (LIB) – 15%
Clayton Doueihi (VIC SOCIALISTS) – 4.4%
The combined Labor, Greens & Socialists (!!) vote here is over 62% and this ward covers the wealthier part of South Yarra (with no housing commission) and some of TOORAK! What a wild round of council elections.
Three more ward results I’m aware of…
South Yarra Ward (southern half of South Yarra) has the Labor incumbent easily retaining on 48% of the primary vote.
Malvern Valley Ward (Malvern East & Glen Iris) is only a two-candidate race between two incumbents, but has the Labor incument leading 61-39 against the president of ‘Council Watch Victoria’ who are actually the parent organisation of the controversial and conservative ‘Residents of Port Phillip’ group.
Orrong Ward (mostly Armadale and ‘Prahran East’) has an ex-Greens Independent leading on 48% of the vote.
Overall, this is an extremely progressive result for what is usually considered a “blue ribbon” Liberal council with 3x Labor and 1x Ex-Greens out of the 4 wards I have seen results for, and we don’t even have results for its most progressive ward Greville (Windsor/Prahran) that I’m aware of yet.
It’s so interesting that while Labor candidates are struggling in a lot of their heartland councils, they appear to have won the 3 wards covering South Yarra, Malvern East and Glen Iris!
Correction, Kate Hely (leading South Yarra Ward) is not Labor, for some reason I thought she was. She appears to be a progressive-leaning Independent. I must have been mistaking her for someone else.
So, 2x Labor, 1x Ex Green, and 1x Progressive IND.
Stonnington will actually have a much more progressive council (looking like a majority) than Port Phillip.
Trent, wondering why you’re identifying the incumbent in Malvern Valley ward as Labor? Both candidates indicated they weren’t endorsed by a political party, so the question becomes were they endorsed by the ALP and didn’t disclose it on the Candidate Question and Answer form….or they are exactly what they say they are…unendorsed by any political party.
I had a look at Meghan Hopper in Como ward…she also states in the Candidate Question and Answer form she’s unendorsed….so why are you also saying she’s ALP?
I can tell you now most voters in this election would have no clue who was party aligned. The ALP and Libs kept a very low profile.
I was just going off the rolling updates on The Age which listed both of them as Labor. It may be referencing party membership rather than endorsement.
I do agree with you though that in council elections – even when a candidate IS endorsed – it can be harder for voters to identify a party because there aren’t even party labels on the ballots.
The point still stands though that regardless of whether or not voters knew their political affiliations, Stonnington will likely have a more progressive council makeup than Port Phillip considering all 4 of the 4 results I’m aware of so far seem to be electing someone who will lean progressive on most issues and council votes.
Which won’t be the case in Port Phillip, where the same factor you mentioned – voters having no clue who is who – is also probably a big part of the reason conservative candidates have been elected in progressive areas.
What I’m seeing is people voting for candidates that will preserve a neighbourhood’s character and community and against the aggressive infill of suburbs the state government is “progressively” ramming down everyone throats. Most would shocked to find out they were actually voting for a political party in drag.
I find it very disturbing that people thought they were voting independant but actually got ALP (or Liberal or Green for that matter) …people have the right to know what they are voting for. Another democratic right we have “progressively” discarded.