Four Moore for Clover

It was an election campaign fuelled by one-upmanship on everything from environmentalism to safety strategies, but in the end, the voters of Sydney and Marrickville decided, essentially, to stick with what they knew.

Incumbent mayor Clover Moore was returned for another four years, with a clear majority of 56 percent of the mayoral vote -” a clear sign of constituency confidence in what Moore has done or, at least, what she has promised to do over another four years.

Moore’s team of Independents fared equally well after taking 47 percent of the first preference votes, which will enable them to retain at least four seats, possibly five, once preference votes have been tallied. This will mean a return to the table for John McInerney, Marcelle Hoff, Phillip Black and Di Tornei, all experienced councillors who have worked with Moore over the past four years.

Moore welcomed the overwhelm-ing vote of public confidence in her abilities.

I would like to thank the City communities for their support and for recognising our achievements and hard work during the last four years, she said in a prepared statement.

We will continue our program of comprehensive consultation to listen and respond to the needs of all our communities.

It was a strong team to come up against, and it was a fight that obviously didn’t put the odds in Labor candidate Meredith Burgmann’s favour. Hotly tipped to be Moore’s main rival, in the end Burgmann only managed to garner 15 percent of the mayoral vote as Labor suffered in the polls.

Burgmann did secure a council seat, as has Liberal candidate Shayne Mallard and the Greens’ Chris Harris, who is likely to be joined by his colleague Irene Doutney once final counting is finished.

Marrickville council returned a Greens majority of 29.3 percent of the vote, allowing for four seats, closely followed by Labor with 28.32 percent of the vote.

Although the mayor will be decided at a council vote on September 30, it was good news for the pink vote, with both gay Labor candidates, Mary O’Sullivan and Laura Wright, managing to gain seats.

Of the openly gay politicians who ran for council election this year, Peter Cavanagh of Woollhara did not get a council seat. Nicholas Maxwell did win a seat on the Woollhara council, as did Bruce Notley-Smith and Scott Nash of Randwick and Trent Zimmerman in North Sydney.