Regime change on Newcastle Council

The government of Newcastle effectively changed last week, with the election of Labor Councillor Stephanie Posniak as the city's new Deputy Lord Mayor.

Clr Posniak replaces the outgoing Liberal Deputy Lord Mayor, Clr Brad Luke, who was elected to the Deputy position by the “McLoyal” Liberal-Independent voting bloc soon after the election of the former Lord Mayor, Jeff McCloy, in September 2012.

Clr Luke has been Acting Lord Mayor since Jeff McCloy was forced to resign as Lord Mayor following exposure of his role in illegal developer donations to the Liberal Party by the NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption.

Clr Posniak will now serve as Acting Lord Mayor until the Lord Mayoral by-election on 15 November.

This significantly shifts the delicate political balance on Newcastle Council.

One of the key functions of the Lord Mayor (or Acting Lord Mayor) is to chair council meetings. The chair of a council meeting gets an ordinary vote, as well as a casting vote if a tied vote needs to be decided. 

Tied votes have been common since Jeff McCloy’s resignation.

While Clr Luke was in the Chair, he used his casting votes in favour of the McLoyal bloc, of which he is a member.

If such a vote occurred now, Clr Posniak (who is not a McLoyal) would exercise this vote, until the new Lord Mayor takes office.

The administrative ineptitude in the way the Deputy Lord Mayoral election was conducted demonstrated the urgent need for change in Newcastle Council.

The election was on the agenda of the council meeting, along with a General Manager’s report outlining the various available options, one of which was decided by the meeting.

Things then descended into chaos.

It was clear that the General Manager (Ken Gouldthorp) was inadequately prepared, to the point where the eventually tied ballot for the Deputy position (between councillors Luke and Posniak) was drawn out of a blue garbage bin.

This was predictably lampooned in the local media, but there has been no apology from the General Manager for how the inept handling of the process had demeaned the appointment of the city’s second highest civic office and exposed the council to ridicule.

If things go according to the pattern set in the recent Newcastle state by-election, it’s highly likely that Labor’s Lord Mayoral candidate, Clr Nuatali Nelmes, will be the city’s new Lord Mayor.

If so, this will consolidate the recent regime change – though it is hard to see the council’s four Labor and two Greens councillors forming the same rigidly consistent voting bloc as the McLoyals.

If Clr Nelmes is elected, this will trigger a consequential by-election in Ward 3 (which she currently represents). On the figures, Labor would be likely to win such a by-election, which would further consolidate the power shift away from the city’s recent dalliance with the centre-right.

Another Ward 3 councillor, Andrea Rufo, who is having difficulties with his civic role due to health problems, may also take the opportunity to step down, leaving two Ward 3 positions to be elected.

Clr Rufo was nominally elected as a progressive Independent councillor, but identified with the conservative McCloyal bloc and was disowned by the Community One group with which he stood in the 2012 council election.

Whatever happens, a zephyr of political change is whispering through the corridors of political power in City Hall at a crucial moment for the city, when so much of what we value is under threat from self-serving vested interests and neo-liberal ideology.

Newcastle Lord Mayoral election will test McCloyals' performance

The local by-election avalanche triggered by ICAC’s Operation Spicer is set to transform Newcastle’s political landscape.

Much of the focus will be on the two by-elections for the state seats of Newcastle and Charlestown on 25 October, in which voters will elect replacements for the former Liberal MPs Tim Owen and Andrew Cornwell, who both resigned after admitting to ICAC that they accepted illegal developer donations.

On the numbers, Labor’s Tim Crakanthorp and Jodie Harrison have to start out firm favourites, but the recent instability of local politics and the usual by-election volatility mean that a result from out of the blue isn’t out of the question. 

In Newcastle, you’d have to rate conservative Independent Karen Howard and The Greens Michael Osborne as having an outside chance of upsetting the pundits.

The absence of Liberal candidates in both these state by-elections means that a change in the complexion of local political representation is inevitable, though the result won’t affect who is in government in NSW (that will be decided next March).

But on 15 November – just three weeks after the state by-elections – Newcastle voters will turn out for a by-election with very different possibilities and with much more significant implications for local governance.

The contest for filling the vacancy created by Jeff McCloy’s resignation as Newcastle’s Lord Mayor (another fallout from ICAC) is likely to significantly affect the reality of what happens in our city.

As this column has frequently reported, Newcastle Council decisions during Mr McCloy’s tenure were often determined by a seven to six vote, with the dominant “McCloyals” bloc comprising the former Lord Mayor, the four Liberal councillors and two conservative Independents.

Since Mr McCloy’s resignation, his place has been filled by Liberal Councillor Brad Luke, who was controversially elected Deputy Lord Mayor soon after the 2012 council election, in one of the earliest indications of what was to become the dominant voting pattern.

As Acting Lord Mayor, Clr Luke now chairs council meetings, and council decisions now often turn on his casting vote, the established mechanism for breaking an otherwise tied vote.

Clr Luke inevitably uses his casting vote to support the Liberal-Independent voting bloc.

The Lord Mayoral by-election could change all that.

So far, only two candidates have confirmed that they are definitely intending to contest the Lord Mayoral ballot: Labor’s Nuatali Nelmes and The Greens Therese Doyle, both current Newcastle councillors.

The Liberals didn’t run a candidate in the 2012 Lord Mayoral election, opting instead to support Jeff McCloy, but they are expected to field a candidate for the by-election, and Clr Luke has indicated that he’s interested.

Former Newcastle councillor and previous Lord Mayoral hopeful Aaron Buman has also indicated that he might run, and if things go to form it’s pretty much inevitable that by the time nominations close on 15 October the field will include a few Independents and minor party candidates.

Again, on the bare numbers, you’d have to say that Clr Nelmes is the starting favourite.

If elected, her casting vote would decide tied votes.

How Labor representatives vote in opposition isn’t always a reliable predictor of how they’ll vote in government, but you’d expect that to change at least a number of council positions adopted by the McCloyals, especially on controversial local planning issues such as the proposed high rise buildings, the Newcastle rail line, and cuts to council services.

Voters hoping for a change in council secrecy might be disappointed, because, while Clr Nelmes has proclaimed her general support for openness and transparency, she’s also openly backed secret councillor briefings and consistently opposed moves by the two Greens councillors to make these more open and transparent – a point that is certain to be made by The Greens’ Clr Doyle during the campaign.

If the Liberals do run, the Lord Mayoral by-election will also be the first opportunity that local voters will have to express how they feel about the general performance of the McCloyal council voting bloc, and about the illegal developer donations scandals that have triggered the by-elections.

Sad, frustrating and confounding it all may be - but it’s certainly not boring or insignificant.