2024-11-12
The Greens have elected 28 councillors at the 2024 local government election as the Greens overall vote has increased across the state.
The Greens have had a pleasing result in Merri-Bek where their vote nearly doubled and they’ve won 4 out of 11 council seats, as well as picking up 3 council seats on Maribyrnong and Darebin and electing councillors for the first time in regional areas like Bass Coast and Campaspe.
Despite an increase in the Greens vote, the number of councillors elected is not representative because of the move to single member wards.
Since single member wards were first announced by Labor, the Greens have warned that the system would be undemocratic by distorting the will of communities.
The Greens say that despite Labor moving to this system which was intended to wipe out minor parties and independents, the Greens result has held strong and Labor’s vote has trended backwards 5% on average in inner city areas.
The Victorian Greens spokesperson for Local Government, Dr Sarah Mansfield says that councils should be representative of the way that the community has voted, but single member wards prevent that from happening.
Quotes attributable to the Victorian Greens’ Local Government spokesperson, Dr Sarah Mansfield:
“With the Greens increasing and 28 new councillors, it’s clear that more and more people across the state want the Greens representing them.
“We’ve seen huge swings to the Greens in many communities across the state, and based on the way people voted we should have even more councillors elected but Labor’s undemocratic single member wards are distorting the will of communities.
“Despite Labor’s best effort to wipe out the Greens with single member wards, we’ve proved that can’t be done.”