2016-10-07
Hall Greenland
The results of the recent NSW Council elections are pretty exciting for Greens in NSW.
The Greens succeeded in winning three popularly elected mayoral positions: Simon Richardson in Byron, Dominic King in Bellingen and Amanda Findley in Shoalhaven.
The Shoalhaven result is particularly satisfying in that Amanda beat the sitting Liberal mayor in what has been a politically conservative area on the state's south coast. Our vote in this shire tripled compared to 2012.
In Byron we equalled our best results ever by winning half the mayoral votes and four of the other eight Councillor positions.
With about half of the state's councils going to the polls (councils that have been forcibly amalagamated had their elections postponed till next year) the Greens increased their representation on the councils facing election from 16 to 27 Councillors.
This overall result was not really unexpected as it follows on from an increase in the Greens lower house vote in the Federal election in NSW.
Our most successful campaigns had the following characteristics:
- strong well organised local groups,
- an existing continuing local Councillor,
- candidates strongly identified with existing ongoing campaigning.
David Shoebridge MLC, our local government spokesperson, summed up our success in this way:
Local communities across the State have shown that they trust The Greens to represent them, because when you elect a member of The Greens you know what you get: principle, decency and a focus on local needs.
It is a unique strength of The Greens in New South Wales that we have a decentralised structure. Local groups make their own decisions, preselect their own candidates and determine their own campaign priorities. That is one of the great strengths of our party. We make decisions through our local groups and our grassroots membership. Every local group has an equal voice and every member has an equal say.
We are a party that rejects centralised leadership, captain's calls and the idea that members of Parliament should have privileged powers to tell members and local groups what to do.
We empower our local groups through grassroots democracy, local autonomy and shared resources. When people do that, great things can happen, as was reflected in The Greens NSW vote over the weekend.
Strong on-the-ground community campaigning meant we broke through in areas where previously we have not had Greens Councillors like Albury, Glen Innes, Goulburn, and the Clarence and regained positions in Sydney's western suburbs.
Local groups – especially those of more recent arrival among our 59 local groups – also benefited from a significant boost in support from the Greens NSW head office – it actually quadrupled in dollar terms compared to the last round of council elections. This helped with social media, printing, coreflutes and policy support.
This boost was the result of a budgetary decision taken by the local groups themselves at the State Delegates Council last December.
In the larger picture the increase in Councillor numbers will strengthen local campaigns for more environmentally sensitive and democratic planning and for halting the spread of fracking and new coal mines.
Experience has also shown that active and supportive councillors, combined with local campaigning, increase our vote in state and federal elections.
The Greens NSW now looks forward with confidence to next year's elections for the amalgamated councils – mostly in the cities and the state's major towns.