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.