2016 New South Wales local elections

2016 New South Wales local elections

←  2012 10 September 2016 [a] 2017  → 2021  →
79 of the 128 local government areas in New South Wales
First party Second party Third party   IND Leader N/A N/A N/A Party Independents Labor Liberal Last election [b] [b] [b] Seats won 545 81 48 Popular vote 678,591 429,605 286,013 Percentage 39.59% 24.60% 16.40% Swing 1.45 5.43 5.45   Fourth party Fifth party Sixth party   Leader No leader Fred Nile Jim Saleam Party Greens Christian Democrats Australia First Last election [b] 0 1 Seats before 1 0 Seats won 24 [1] 0 0 Seat change 1 Popular vote 110,491 15,326 4,424 Percentage 6.35% 0.90% 0.27% Swing 0.33 0.49 0.08   Seventh party Eighth party   AJP Leader John Humphreys No leader Party Liberal Democrats Animal Justice Last election 1 [b] Did not contest Seats before 1 0 Seats won 0 0 Seat change 1 Popular vote 4,356 193 Percentage 0.27% 0.02% Swing 0.04 0.02

The 2016 New South Wales local elections were held on 10 September 2016 to elect the councils of 79 of the 128 local government areas (LGAs) of New South Wales. Several councils also held mayoral elections and/or referendums. ^[2]

The elections were conducted by the New South Wales Electoral Commission, with the exception of Fairfield, Gunnedah, Kempsey, Lake Macquarie and Penrith, who chose to conduct their own elections. ^[2]

The election in Tweed was deferred until 29 October 2016 due to the death of a candidate. ^[3]

Background

Following the 2012 elections, major changes occurred as a result of the enactment of the Local Government (Areas) Act 1948 and as a result of a review by the NSW Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal (IPART) that commenced in 2013. On 12 May 2016, following a further review by the Minister for Local Government and the independent Local Government Boundaries Commission, Premier Mike Baird announced Stage 1 starting with 19 new councils, through amalgamations and mergers, with immediate effect. The Minister indicated in principle support to create a further nine new councils, subject to the decision of the courts. ^{[4] [5]} On the same day, the Governor of New South Wales acted on the advice of the Minister, and proclaimed the 19 new local government areas. Another proclamation occurred a few months later with the amalgamation of City of Botany Bay and City of Rockdale. ^[6]

This resulted in 46 councils not being contested until 2017, before the vast majority contested together again in 2021.

Parties

The following registered parties contested this election. This does not include groups of independents:

• Animal Justice Party
• Christian Democrats
• Greens
• Labor Party
• Liberal Democrats
• Liberal Party

In addition, a number of local government-registered parties also contested the elections. ^[7]

Party changes before elections

A number of councillors joined or left parties before the 2016 elections.

In Fairfield, Labor councillor George Barcha was handed a 6-month suspension for branch stacking and ran fourth on the party's Cabravale Ward ticket at the election. ^[8]

Council	Ward	Councillor	Former party		New party		Date
Cessnock	C Ward	Suellen Wrightson		Liberal		Palmer United	23 June 2013
Penrith	East	Maurice Girotto		Australia First		Independent	31 October 2013
Hurstville	Peakhurst	Michelle Stevens		Labor		Independent	3 April 2014
Ballina	B Ward	Jeff Johnson		Greens		Independent	16 February 2015 [9]
Wagga Wagga	Unsubdivided	Paul Funnell		Democratic Labour		Country	5 March 2015
Wagga Wagga	Unsubdivided	Paul Funnell		Country		Independent	29 March 2015
Fairfield	Cabravale	George Barcha		Labor		Independent Labor	11 November 2015
Blacktown	Ward 5	Jacqueline Donaldson		Liberal		Independent	2015
Penrith	East	Maurice Girotto		Independent		Christian Democrats	16 March 2016
Fairfield	Cabravale	Dai Le		Liberal		Independent	16 August 2016
Fairfield	Mayor	Frank Carbone		Labor		Independent	30 August 2016

Results

Main article: Results of the 2016 New South Wales local elections

Party			Votes	%	Swing	Seats [b] [c]	Change
	Independents		678,591	39.59	+1.45	545
	Labor		429,605	24.60	+5.43	81
	Liberal		286,013	16.40	−5.45	48
	Greens		110,491	6.35	−0.33	23
	Clover Moore Independent Team		45,224	2.60	+1.71	5	1
	Independent National		40,896	2.35	+1.36	15
	Shoalhaven Independents		21,510	1.31	+0.98	5	2
	Independent Liberal		21,364	1.30	−2.57	5
	Independent Lake Alliance		20,978	1.21	+0.44	1	3
	Lake Mac Independents		19,036	1.10	+1.10	3	3
	Christian Democrats		15,326	0.90	+0.49	0
	Liverpool Community Independents Team		13,207	0.75	+0.54	2	1
	Totally Locally Committed		7,865	0.45	+0.24	2
	Community First		7,049	0.41	+0.25	1
	Sydney Matters		6,051	0.35	+0.35	1	1
	Australia First		4,424	0.27	+0.08	0	1
	Liberal Democrats		4,356	0.27	−0.04	0	1
	Our Sustainable Future		4,295	0.26	+0.18	2
	Bob Thompson		3,891	0.25	+0.13	1
	Independent Labor		3,700	0.23	−0.24	4
	Community Service Environment		2,152	0.14	+0.02	0	1
	For A Better Shoalhaven		1,394	0.10	+0.10	0
	Albury Citizens and Ratepayers		301	0.03	−0.05	0	1
	Animal Justice		193	0.02	+0.02	0
Total			1,747,912	100.00	–	–	–

Referendums

In addition to the local elections, six LGAs held referendums.

LGA	Question	YES		NO		Informal		Turnout		Ref
		Votes	%	Votes	%	Votes	%	Total	%
Hawkesbury	"Currently Hawkesbury City Council is an undivided council with no wards. Do you agree to the Hawkesbury Local Government Area being divided into three (3) wards, each ward electing four (4) Councillors?"	11,233	30.87	25,154	69.13	2,214	5.74	38,601	80.84
Narrandera	"Do you support a reduction in the number of Councillors for the Narrandera Shire Council from nine (9) to seven (7)?"	1,636	48.92	1,708	51.08	147	4.21	3,491	80.27
Tenterfield	"Do you favour the removal of the current ward based system so that all electors vote for all 10 Councillors that represent the Tenterfield Shire Council area?"	1,628	43.42	2,121	56.58	108	2.80	3,857	77.89
Tweed	"Do you support an increase in the number of Tweed Shire Councillors from sever (7) to nine (9)? If there is majority support for the proposal, the changes will take effect from the 2020 Local Government election."	16,890	34.46	32,125	65.54	1,680	3.31	50,695	75.70
Upper Hunter	"The Mayor of the Upper Hunter Shire Council is currently elected annually by the nine (9) Councillors. Do you want to change to the direct election of the Mayor by the voters of the Upper Hunter Shire Council, for a four (4) year term, with the number of Councillors (including the Mayor) remaining at nine (9)?"	3,309	43.03	4,381	56.97	170	2.16	7,860	77.87
Wollondilly	"Do you favour the election of the Mayor by electors for a four (4) year term with the number of Wards reduced from three (3) to two (2), each Ward comprising of four (4) Councillors, plus a popularly elected Mayor?"	14,961	65.80	7,777	34.20	2,414	9.60	25,152	71.75

By-elections

For by-elections in councils that held local elections in 2017, see here.

The New South Wales Electoral Commission held a number of by-elections to fill vacancies on councils after the 2016 elections up until 2021. ^[10]

Council	Ward	Before			Change		Result after preference distribution
		Councillor	Party		Cause	Date	Date	Party		Candidate	%
Campbelltown	Unsubdivided	Fred Borg		Totally Locally Committed	Death	20 December 2016	18 March 2017		Labor	Ben Gilholme	56.47
									Community First	Josh Cotter	43.53
Lithgow	Unsubdivided						8 April 2017		Independent	Darryl Goodwin [d]	39.83
									Independent	Deanna Goodsell [d]	21.04
Port Macquarie-Hastings	Unsubdivided						29 July 2017		Independent	Peta Pinson	51.07
									Independent	Robert Turner	48.93
Brewarrina	Unsubdivided						19 August 2017		Independent	Michael Hertslet	N/A
									Elected unopposed
Narromine	Unsubdivided						19 August 2017		Independent	Trudy Everingham	56.52
									Independent	Ruth Carney	43.48
Tenterfield	Ward D						19 August 2017		Independent	Bob Rogan	54.43
									Independent	Brian Brown	45.57
Wollondilly	Unsubdivided						28 October 2017		Independent	Matt Smith	56.62
									Independent	Laura Egan-Burt	43.38
Coonamble	Unsubdivided						26 March 2018		Independent	Robert Thomas	54.61
									Independent	Pat Cullen	45.39
Berrigan	Unsubdivided						14 July 2018		Independent	Roger Reynoldson	68.39
									Independent	Ruth Silvester	31.61
Greater Hume	East						24 November 2018		Independent	Lea Parker	52.34
									Independent	Greg Mason [e]	24.67
Cobar	Unsubdivided						8 December 2018		Independent	Kate Winders	51.53
									Independent	Benny Hewlett	48.47
Griffith	Ward A						16 February 2019		Ind. National	Glen Andreazza	55.25
									Independent	Damien Marcus	44.75
Lachlan	Ward D						16 February 2019		Independent	Elaine Bendall [d]	63.52
									Independent	Dennis Brady [d]	16.01
Uralla	Ward A						16 February 2019		Independent	Tom O'Connor	66.91
									Independent	Charlotte Field-Sampson	33.09
Coonamble	Unsubdivided						29 June 2019		Independent	Pat Cullen [d]	33.11
									Independent	Barbara Deans [d]	24.64

See also

• 2016 Sydney City Council election
• 2016 Tweed Shire Council election

Notes

1. The election in Tweed was held on 29 October 2016.
2. This does not include seats in 46 LGAs that were won in 2012 but not up for re-election until the 2017 local elections.
3. Excluding directly-elected mayors.
4. Two vacancies on council, meaning two candidates were elected - this shows their primary vote before preference distribution.
5. Second-placed out of three candidate after initial preference distribution.

References

1. Mantel, Alice. "Big wins for Greens in Council elections". Canada Bay Greens. Archived from the original on 21 September 2023. Retrieved 12 September 2024.
2. "Results by Local Government Area". New South Wales Electoral Commission. Archived from the original on 29 December 2023.
3. Anthony, Bob. "New Tweed election date opens door for more potential candidates". Gold Coast Bulletin.
4. "Introduction". Stronger Councils. Government of New South Wales. 12 May 2016. Retrieved 12 May 2016.
5. "New councils for NSW". Family & Community Services (Press release). Government of New South Wales. 12 May 2016. Retrieved 12 May 2016.
6. "Local Government (Council Amalgamations) Proclamation 2016" (PDF). Stronger Councils. Government of New South Wales . Retrieved 12 May 2016.
7. "Local government register of political parties". New South Wales Electoral Commission.
8. McClymont, Kate (11 November 2015). "Fairfield councillor and ALP staffer George Barcha cops six months suspension for branch-stacking". Sydney Morning Herald.
9. "Greens' councillor to run as independent in state seat of Ballina". ABC News. 16 February 2015. Archived from the original on 23 September 2024. Retrieved 23 September 2024.
10. "Local government election results". New South Wales Electoral Commission.