1948 Sydney City Council election

1948 Sydney City Council election

←  1944 4 December 1948 1950 →
Turnout	75% [1]
First party Second party Third party   Leader Ernest Charles O'Dea Reg Bartley Horace Foley Party Labor Civic Reform Lang Labor Leader's seat Phillip Ward Gipps Ward Phillip Ward (lost seat) Last election 8 seats 12 seats 0 seats Seats before 7 [a] 11 [b] 1 [a] Seats won 19 seats 9 seats 2 seats Seat change 12 2 1

The 1948 Sydney City Council election was held on 4 December 1948 to elect councillors to the City of Sydney, a local government area of New South Wales, Australia. ^[2]

Labor won a majority on council for the first time in 21 years, defeating the Civic Reform Association. ^[3]

Although scheduled to be held as part of the statewide local elections in 1947, the election was delayed by a year. ^[4]

Background

In 1947, the state Labor government expanded the boundaries of the City of Sydney to include the following municipalities: ^[1]

• Alexandria
• Darlington
• Erskineville
• Newtown
• Paddington
• Redfern
• The Glebe
• Waterloo

This saw the number of councillors increase from 20 to 30. The existing five four-member wards − Fitzroy, Flinders, Gipps, Macquarie and Phillip − were unchanged, while another four were created: ^[1]

• Newtown Ward (four councillors)
• Glebe Ward (two councillors)
• Redfern Ward (two councillors)
• Paddington Ward (two councillors)

This was also the first Sydney City Council election to use first-past-the-post, replacing preferential voting. The change only lasted several years. ^[5]

Campaign

Civic Reform campaigned against Labor on a message of "keeping local government in Sydney free of politics". ^[6]

114 candidates contested the election, with seven different groups endorsing candidates: ^{[7] [8] [9]}

• Australian Labor Party (Official Labor)
• City Progressives ^[c]
• Civic Reform Association
• Communist Party of Australia
• Independent Lang Labor
• Lang Labor
• Social Justice Progressives

Notes

1. On 6 April 1945, Labor alderman Paddy Stokes (Phillip Ward) died. The by-election held on 5 May was won by Lang Labor candidate Horace Foley.
2. Civic Reform alderman William Neville Harding (Macquarie Ward) left the CRA to form the City Progressives ahead of the election.
3. In Fitzroy Ward, the City Progressives candidates were reported by The Sydney Morning Herald to be endorsed by the King's Cross Citizens and Ratepayers' Association. ^[8]

References

1. Golder, Hilary. "A short electoral history of the Sydney City Council" (PDF). City of Sydney. Archived from the original (PDF) on 13 March 2024.
2. "City of Sydney poll result". The Daily Telegraph. 6 December 1948.
3. "City Council Election". Sydney Morning Herald. 8 December 1948.
4. "City Elections". City of Sydney. Kings Cross Times. The usual triennial municipal elections due December 1947, were postponed by the Government for 12 months.
5. "FIRST PAST POST VOTING FOR COUNCIL". Trove. Daily Mirror.
6. "ELECTION PLEDGE OF PARTY". Trove. Daily Mirror.
7. "Labour gets control of Sydney Council". The West Australian. 6 December 1948.
8. "City Council Election Candidates". Sydney Morning Herald. 13 November 1948.
9. "Communist Candidates". Tribune. 13 November 1948.