Following days of intense negotiations, the two most organised groupings emerged victorious with the Mayor and Deputy Mayor position.
The ALP’s Cr Louise Crawford was elected unopposed as Mayor, with Cr Bryan Mears from RoPP unopposed as Deputy Mayor.
The council is finely balanced, with three ‘progressive’ councillors (Louise Crawford, Libby Buckingham and Justin Halliday), three non-aligned independents (Heather Cunsolo, Alex Makin and Serge Thomann) and three RoPP councillors (Bryan Mears, Rod Hardy and Beti Jay).
This council is uniquely experienced despite only two councillors being re-elected (Louise Crawford and Heather Cunsolo). Three other councillors have previous municipal experience: Serge Thomann with two previous terms on Port Phillip, Alex Makin with two terms on Maroondah City Council including a period as Mayor and Rod Hardy as the first Mayor in the Shire of Macedon Ranges.
The councillors come from a range of walks of life: Louise is an actor, Heather an architect, Serge a photographer and restaurateur, Alex and Beti are in marketing, Justin is a state public servant, Bryan a retired business exec, Libby is a former teacher now working in community advocacy, and Rod worked in Victoria Police.
Votes drift from parties to independents
With all the votes counted and all the preferences distributed, the headlines for the result are clear and stark:
No Greens were elected despite securing a 17% of first preference votes;
No independent Liberal-aligned candidates were elected, effectively the Liberals left the field;
RoPP won three of four contested wards with very strong first preference votes;
Labor secured two wards with about 17% of the city-wide first preference vote;
The strong independent vote secured three non-aligned councillors.
Voter turnout results
Postal voting delivered a 72.8% turnout municipality wide, a little lower than the COVID vote turnout but higher than the pre-covid norm which was typically 50%. But the turnout varied significantly across the nine wards, with highly motivated voters in Albert Park and less enthusiasm in St Kilda.
