The City of Whitehorse covers parts of the middle eastern suburbs including Mitcham, Blackburn, Box Hill, Forest Hill and parts of Burwood, Nunawading, Surrey Hills, Mont Albert, Vermont and Balwyn North.
The council had a population of 169,346 as of the 2021 census.
- Wards
- Incumbent councillors
- History
- Council control
- Candidate summary
- Assessment
- Voting trends by ward
Wards
The City of Whitehorse is divided into eleven single-member wards:
- Cootamundra – in the north, covering parts of Blackburn and Blackburn North.
- Eley – in the south, covering Blackburn South and parts of Burwood East.
- Elgar – in the north-west, covering Box Hill North and parts of Mont Albert North and Box Hill.
- Kingsley – in the west, covering Mont Albert and part of Mont Albert North.
- Lake – in the north, covering parts of Blackburn, Blackburn North and Nunawading.
- Mahoneys – in the south-east, covering parts of Burwood East, Forest Hill and Vermont.
- Simpson – in the east, covering parts of Mitcham and Vermont.
- Sparks – in the west, covering parts of Box Hill and Box Hill South.
- Terrara – in the south-east corner, covering Vermont South and parts of Burwood East.
- Walker – in the north-east, covering parts of Mitcham and Nunawading.
- Wattle – in the south-west, covering Burwood and parts of Box Hill South.
| Cootamundra | Andrew Munroe (Ind Lib) | Simpson | Prue Cutts (Independent) |
| Eley | Trudy Skilbeck (Ind) | Sparks | Tina Liu (Independent) |
| Elgar | Blair Barker (Ind Liberal) | Terrara | Raylene Carr (Independent) |
| Kingsley | Amanda McNeill (Ind Lib) | Walker | Ben Stennett (Independent) |
| Lake | Denise Massoud (Ind Lib) | Wattle | Andrew Davenport (Ind Lib) |
| Mahoneys | Mark Lane (Ind Liberal) |
History
The City of Whitehorse was created in 1994 as a merger of the City of Box Hill and the City of Nunawading.
The councillors were elected from five two-member wards from 2000 until 2020, when the council moved to eleven single-member wards.
In the last four years, the council’s mayors have been Andrew Munroe, Tina Liu, Mark Lane and Denise Massoud.
Council control
Six out of eleven members of the council were elected as part of the Burwood Liberals ticket, but generally that doesn’t seem to have been a factor in how councillors vote when it comes to mayoral and deputy mayoral elections.
Over the four years, including mayoral and deputy mayoral elections, and including multiple rounds where more than two candidates stood, there have been fourteen ballots. No two councillors have voted together on every ballot. Yet there are some clear trends, with some groups tending to win over others.
There’s a core group of councillors Carr, Lane, Liu, Massoud, Munroe and Skilbeck which have tended to be on the winning side. These six were all part of the winning group for the mayoral election in 2020, 2021 and 2023, and the deputy mayoral election in 2020. All but Carr voted for the deputy mayor in 2021. A member of this group has been mayor for every year in the last term, as well as the deputy mayors elected in 2020 and 2021.
Things were more chaotic in 2022, when three candidates nominated for both offices. Only four of the six in that core group voted for the successful mayor Lane, and only two voted for the successful deputy mayor Cutts.
In 2023, four candidates ran for mayor, and another four for deputy mayor. The dominant group split between the incumbent mayor Lane and councillor Massoud, and Lane was knocked out. The group ended up coming together to all vote for the successful candidate Massoud in the final round. The 2023 deputy mayoral election was the worst result for this dominant group, with Lane splitting with the group to vote with the other five councillors for Davenport.
Candidate summary
Councillor Raylene Carr is not running for re-election.
The Victorian Socialists are running four candidates, and the Greens are running one.
Assessment
While there is some obvious factionalism on the council, it doesn’t appear to have much relationship to how people voted at the election. It will be interesting to see if this changes 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 in all but one ward. The Liberal Party won the westernmost Kingsley ward. If you look at the two-candidate-preferred vote, independent candidate Monique Ryan won that ward.
If you look at primary votes, the Liberal Party’s best areas are at the eastern end of the council, as well as Kingsley at the western end.
Candidates – Cootamundra Ward
- Jeffrey Rickard
- Nyssa Leereveld (Greens)
- Greg Cheesman
- Alec Waleed Ferguson (Victorian Socialists)
- Cr Andrew Munroe
- Kieran Simpson
Candidates – Eley Ward
- Daniel Griffiths
- Euan Thomas
- Yuhong Liu
- David Solly
- Cr Trudy Skilbeck
Candidates – Elgar Ward
- Heather Maltby (Victorian Socialists)
- Cr Blair Barker
- David Tenni
- Thu Le
Candidates – Kingsley Ward
- Maeve Luu
- Cr Amanda McNeill
- Greg Smith
- Jotin Tonjamba Khuman
- Gayle Goldsmith
- Nadia Pitisano
- Kirsten Langford
Candidates – Lake Ward
- Cr Denise Massoud
- Zak Fennell
- Hong Lin Zheng
- Hayley Weller
Candidates – Mahoneys Ward
- Jason Martin
- Nildhara Gadani
- Cr Mark Lane
- Anne V. Makhijani
Candidates – Simpson Ward
- Tim Kirke
- Cr Prue Cutts
Candidates – Sparks Ward
- Cr Tina Liu
- Carol Zhang
- Aaron Qin
- Saravina Afaj (Victorian Socialists)
- Peter John Allan
Candidates – Terrara Ward
- Jarrod Gunn
- George Manos
Candidates – Walker Ward
- Stephanie Gaut
- Cr Ben Stennett
- Josh Dwyer (Victorian Socialists)
- Philip Daw
- Preston Brown
- Christine Davis
Candidates – Wattle Ward
- Greg Dixon
- Cr Andrew Davenport
- Sandy Li
Some of your affiliations are incorrect
Prue is Lib Ind
Ben is Labor Ind
BR CORRECTION: Prue has clarified that she is not a Liberal.
Are you sure about those? They are listed as just independents on the Wikipedia list.
Pretty sure Prue is a Liberal, not an “independent.
BR CORRECTION: Prue has clarified that she is not a Liberal.
The Kingsley ward is elite and is part of Kooyong at a Federal level it the same SES as Borondoora. The Vermont area is generally strong for the Libs. If the Lake wards and Cootamundra wards were redrawn and the Lake ward extended from Middleborough Road to Springvale Road with Maroondah Highway and Canterbury Road also being boundaries the Greens could win that vote as it is a bit of a Tree change area.
In 2016, the Libs would have won every single ward here. Even in 2019 only a few wards would have gone to Labor. Goes to show how much the Lib vote collapsed in this part of Melbourne.
@Dan M that’s why Victoria has John Pesutto. He’s trying to take back the Liberal vote in Melbourne, particularly the small-l-liberal vote and the ethnic Liberal vote, two factors that have remained alive and well in NSW but not Victoria.
Hi Ben,
My name is David Tenni and I am an independant candidate for Elgar Ward in whitehorse, I haven’t been able to find your email so i’m just leaving this comment in case you are going to update the canidate list.
Thanks David, I’m not sure if I will make candidate lists for the Victorian councils but if I do I’ll add you. There’s a contact form on the “about” page.
I wonder if Hayley Weller who is running in Lake Ward – and who is a member of the Labor Party – is using it as a stepping stone to a run for Ringwood preselection seeing the seat is vacant from the ALP point of view .