2024 Sydney City Council election

2024 Sydney City Council election

14 September 2024

Lord Mayor

First party Second party Third party   Candidate Clover Moore Zann Maxwell Sylvie Ellsmore Party Team Clover Labor Greens First preference vote 33,018 15,392 11,617 Percentage 36.78% 17.15% 12.94% Swing 6.12 2.45 4.64 2CP 62.90% 37.10% 2CP swing 5.00 5.00   Fourth party Fifth party Sixth party   Candidate Lyndon Gannon Yvonne Weldon Sean Masters Party Liberal YWI Libertarian First preference vote 10,857 9,038 3,234 Percentage 12.09% 10.07% 3.60% Swing 3.01 2.03 3.60

Lord Mayor before election Clover Moore Team Clover Subsequent Lord Mayor Clover Moore Team Clover

Councillors

All 9 councillors on Sydney City Council (excluding the mayor) 5 seats needed for a majority

Party Leader Vote % Seats +/– Team Clover Clover Moore 31.9 3 −1 Labor Zann Maxwell 19.9 2 +1 Greens Sylvie Ellsmore 16.1 2 +1 Liberal Lyndon Gannon 14.4 1 −1 Weldon Independents Yvonne Weldon 9.2 1 0 This lists parties that won seats. See the complete results below.

The 2024 Sydney City Council election was held on 14 September 2024 to elect nine councillors and a lord mayor to the City of Sydney. The election was held as part of the statewide local government elections in New South Wales, Australia.[1]

Incumbent Clover Moore was re-elected to a record sixth term as Lord Mayor of Sydney.[2]

Electoral system

Like in all other New South Wales local government areas, Sydney City Council elections use optional preferential voting. Under this system, voters are only required to vote for one candidate or group, although they can choose to preference other candidates.[3]

All elections for councillor positions are elected using proportional representation.[4] Sydney is an undivided council and uses an Australian Senate-style ballot paper with above-the-line and below-the-line voting.[5]

Voting is compulsory for anyone on the New South Wales state electoral roll.[6]

Business vote removal

In New South Wales, property owners, rate-paying occupiers or lessees can apply to be on the "non-residential roll" in an LGA, as long as they are not already enrolled as a resident in that area and if they are eligible to be enrolled for state and federal elections.[7] Voting is not compulsory for those on non-residential rolls, although it is still compulsory in the LGA where they are on the residential roll.[8]

However, in 2014, then-Liberal premier Mike Baird introduced a law for that gave businesses that own, lease, or occupy rateable land in the City of Sydney two votes each.[9] Voting for businesses in Sydney also became compulsory.[10] Many critics saw the decision as an attempt by the Liberals to unseat Clover Moore as lord mayor.[11] The business vote came into effect at the 2016 election and was again in force at the 2021 election.[12][13]

Following Labor's victory at the 2023 state election, independent MP Alex Greenwich wrote to the new local government minister, Ron Hoenig, requesting that the business vote was removed.[14]

On 13 September 2023, Hoenig formally announced that the business vote would be removed, starting at the 2024 election.[15] Eligible people will still be able to apply to be on the non-residential roll, however only one person would now be entitled to be enrolled on behalf of non-residents − the same as all other LGAs.[15]

Endorsements

Group	Endorsement
Turning Point Australia		Libertarian[16]
We Vote For Palestine		Greens[17]
		Socialist Alliance[17]

Campaign

The Libertarian Party contested Sydney City Council for the first time, choosing Sean Masters as their lord mayoral candidate.[18] The party ran on the slogan "No Moore" and called for "keeping ideology out of council".[19][20]

Socialist Alliance campaigned on a platform of creating an "anti-racism and anti-war council" with "housing, environmental, and economic justice".[21]

Candidates

All candidates are listed in ballot paper order.

Lord Mayor

Party		Candidate	Background
	Independent	Susan Ritchie	Co-owner of The Beacham Hotel[22]
	Team Clover	Clover Moore	Lord Mayor of Sydney since 2004
	Yvonne Weldon Independents	Yvonne Weldon	Sydney councillor since 2021
	We Love Sydney Independents	Sam Danieli	Mayor of Warringah from 1996–98[23][24]
	Libertarian	Sean Masters	Creative director in advertising industry[25]
	Liberal	Lyndon Gannon	Sydney councillor since 2021[26][27]
	Greens	Sylvie Ellsmore	Sydney councillor since 2021[28]
	Socialist Alliance	Rachel Evans	Activist
	Independent	Baiyu Chen	Background in graphic design and fashion design[29]
	Labor	Zann Maxwell	Former electorate officer for Bill Shorten[30]

Councillors

Incumbent councillors are highlighted in bold text.[31][32][33]

Libertarian	Weldon Independents	Labor	Liberal	Greens
Sean Masters Rahn Wood Clinton Mead James Hanks Rosalind Hecker	Yvonne Weldon Rod Morrison Daniel McDonald Alison Davey Murray Gatt	Zann Maxwell Mitch Wilson Tamira Stevenson Holly Rebeiro Michelle Perry Luc Harvey	Lyndon Gannon Patrice Pandeleos Alex (Ke) Xu Bearte McDonald James Dore	Sylvie Ellsmore Matthew Thompson Jay Gillieatt Caroline Alcorso Chetan Sahai
Team Clover	Socialist Alliance	We Love Sydney	Ungrouped
Clover Moore Robert Kok Jess Miller Adam Worling William Chan Emelda Davis Lachlan Barker-Kennedy Jenny Burn Christine Byrne Claudia Bowman	Rachel Evans Andrew Chuter Adam Haddad Coral Wynter Suelin McCauley Jim McIlroy	Sam Danieli Geoffrey Alder Mirjana Andric Scott Davis Catherine Yang	Susan Ritchie (Ind) Baiyu Chen (Ind)

Retiring councillors

• Linda Scott (Labor) − announced 7 June 2024[34]
• Shauna Jarrett (Liberal) − lost preselection

Results

Lord Mayor

This section is an excerpt from 2024 New South Wales mayoral elections § Sydney.[edit]

2024 New South Wales mayoral elections: Sydney[35][36]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Team Clover	Clover Moore	33,018	36.78	–6.12
	Labor	Zann Maxwell	15,392	17.15	+2.45
	Greens	Sylvie Ellsmore	11,617	12.94	+4.64
	Liberal	Lyndon Gannon	10,857	12.09	−3.01
	Weldon Independents	Yvonne Weldon	9,038	10.07	−2.03
	Libertarian	Sean Masters	3,234	3.60	+3.60
	We Love Sydney	Sam Danieli	3,209	3.57	+3.57
	Independent	Susan Ritchie	1,798	2.00	+2.00
	Socialist Alliance	Rachel Evans	918	1.02	+1.02
	Independent	Baiyu Chen	686	0.76	+0.76
Total formal votes			89,767	97.71	−0.89
Informal votes			2,111	2.29	+0.89
Turnout			91,878
Two-candidate-preferred result
	Team Clover	Clover Moore	41,522	62.90	–5.00
	Labor	Zann Maxwell	24,489	37.10	+5.00
	Team Clover hold		Swing	–5.00

Councillors

This section is an excerpt from Results of the 2024 New South Wales local elections in Inner Sydney § Sydney results.[edit]

2024 New South Wales local elections: Sydney[37][38]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Team Clover	1. Clover Moore 2. Robert Kok (elected 1) 3. Jess Miller (elected 5) 4. Adam Worling (elected 6) 5. William Chan 6. Emelda Davis 7. Lachlan Barker-Kennedy 8. Jenny Burn 9. Christine Byrne 10. Claudia Bowman	28,201	31.9	−8.9
	Labor	1. Zann Maxwell (elected 2) 2. Mitch Wilson (elected 7) 3. Tamira Stevenson 4. Holly Rebeiro 5. Michelle Perry 6. Luc Harvey	17,605	19.9	+5.2
	Greens	1. Sylvie Ellsmore (elected 3) 2. Matthew Thompson (elected 9) 3. Jay Gillieatt 4. Caroline Alcorso 5. Chetan Sahai	14,223	16.1	+5.0
	Liberal	1. Lyndon Gannon (elected 4) 2. Patrice Pandeleos 3. Alex (Ke) Xu 4. Bearte McDonald 5. James Dore	12,704	14.4	−3.0
	Weldon Independents	1. Yvonne Weldon (elected 8) 2. Rod Morrison 3. Daniel McDonald 4. Alison Davey 5. Murray Gatt	8,144	9.2	+0.2
	Libertarian	1. Sean Masters 2. Rahn Wood 3. Clinton Mead 4. James Hanks 5. Rosalind Hecker	3,616	4.1	+4.1
	We Love Sydney Independents	1. Sam Danieli 2. Geoffrey Alder 3. Mirjana Andric 4. Scott Davis 5. Catherine Yang	2,478	2.8	+2.8
	Socialist Alliance	1. Rachel Evans 2. Andrew Chuter 3. Adam Haddad 4. Coral Wynter 5. Suelin McCauley 6. Jim McIlr	984	1.1	+1.1
	Independent	Susan Ritchie	343	0.4	+0.4
	Independent	Baiyu Chen	56	0.1	+0.1
Total formal votes			88,354	96.0
Informal votes			3,690	4.0
Turnout			92,044	72.87

References

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2. "Clover Moore prepares to seek historic sixth term as Sydney lord mayor". Sydney Morning Herald. 17 August 2023.
3. "How votes are counted in a local government election". New South Wales Electoral Commission. Archived from the original on 12 September 2024. Retrieved 14 September 2024.
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30. Magaletti, Douglas (7 September 2024). "Zann Maxwell Could Be City Of Sydney Council's First Out Gay Lord Mayor". Star Observer. Archived from the original on 14 September 2024. Retrieved 17 September 2024.
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34. "As I have just announced on @abcsydney, I have decided not to renominate for Labor's pre-selection, which opens today". Twitter. Councillor Linda Scott. 7 June 2024. Archived from the original on 16 July 2024. Retrieved 16 July 2024.
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