THE QUEEN O GEORGE STRE
Clover Moore wins an historic fifth term as Sydney lord mayor. Political analyst Ben Raue crunches th oters across New South Wales went to the polls at the start of December for the longdelayed local government elections. The vote had first been due in September 2020, and was delayed by the first wave of COVID-19, and then delayed again by the Sydney lockdown of winter 2021. While the lockdown has ended, restrictions continued to haunt the election. Parties and candidates were
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banned from handing out how-to-vote cards within 100m of the polling place, and there was a surge in pre-poll, postal and online voting, leading to the online voting website crashing on election day under extreme demand. The council elections in central and eastern Sydney produced positive outcomes for parties of the left, with the Liberal party and conservative independents withdrawing from some councils and losing ground elsewhere. A Liberal majority council in the eastern suburbs may be opening up more, while progressive majorities are being
18 | Inner Sydney Voice | Summer 2021-2022 | innersydneyvoice.org.au
strengthened in other areas. In the City of Sydney, lord mayor Clover Moore was re-elected despite a 14 percent swing against her. She lost votes to candidates of the centre and left, with Labor and the Greens gaining swings and Yvonne Weldon polling 15 percent. For council, Weldon takes over the seat of Kerryn Phelps, a Clover Moore breakaway who founded the team Weldon now leads. Moore held all her other seats, while the Greens returned to council after a five-year break. The Liberal party has lost its second seat,
