All candidates are directed to the note for candidates at the bottom of this page.
Introductory Waffle
As perhaps the biggest (in terms of advance action) campaign ever ramps up, here is my resource page for the 2022 Hobart City Council elections. This guide (like my 2014 guide and 2018 guide) includes a list of candidates who are running for the Council for the 2022-26 term. The guide includes brief bio details and links, descriptions of candidates' past electoral form (where any) and some vague speculation about prospects. It also covers the campaign generally, polling and the related elector poll. All sections will be updated regularly as time permits and more information comes to hand.
During the campaign period voters will get official statements by the candidates, with photos supplied by them. The online version will include web links. This piece is published first for the interest of those who don't want to wait for the candidate statements, but will stay up to present a less filtered view of candidate backgrounds.
Donations to cover my time in writing this guide are very welcome - but not from HCC candidates or their direct connections during the campaign period. There's a PayPal button on the sidebar or you can email me for bank account details. Please only donate if you are sure you can afford to.
A note that for the candidate profile section Darcy Murphy's efforts in pre-compiling candidate links have saved me what would have been hours of link-hunting. In what has been the most severely time-deprived year of my life I cannot express what a blessing this has been. Thanks also to my mother Pru Bonham for a bit of extra help with candidate-spotting and other comments.
For some complex background to the voting patterns of incumbent councillors, see Hobart City Council Voting Patterns 2018-22. By way of a quick summary, while most councillors are technically independent, and even the party-endorsed candidates don't vote the same way as each other all the time, I've historically found that most councillors belong to two loose clusters of generally likeminded councillors. I refer to these as the "greens" (including The Greens and somewhat likeminded others) and the "blues" (who more often favour the interests of commerce and development when environmental conflicts arise). Note that "blues" are not necessarily Liberals; indeed councillors with past Labor connections have from time to time cropped up in both groupings. The 2014-8 term saw these tendencies less apparent than before, and this was also the case early in the current term, but from about early 2020 the Council's voting on contested motions has become more factionalised than I have seen for some time, with an unusually large number of tied votes. There have also been quite a few votes with most of the Council on one side and, say, the endorsed Greens and/or Dutta on the other side, and quite a few with most of the Council on one side and, eg, Behrakis/Coats/Zucco on the other. (The rejection of the proposed cable car was a case of the latter).
Voting is compulsory. The election will also include a non-binding voluntary elector poll on the question of the University of Tasmania's plans to move to the CBD (see item 1 in Issues section). The poll was requisitioned by the Save UTAS Campus group which opposes the move after it cleared the very low bar of 1000 signatures. (The state government's local government reform process which was to include abolition of petition-requested elector polls stalled years ago.)
I am aiming to do a similar but briefer guide for Clarence council before voting starts if I can. I've selected Clarence because it too has a strong history of councillors with an involvement in party and/or state politics. Alas I don't have time to do them for all councils.
Vote Formally, Vote Well
After excessive rates of unintended informal voting marred the 2014 and 2018 Hobart elections, the State Government has reduced the number of boxes you need to number on the Councillor ballot to 5 (meaning that any Councillor vote with at least the numbers 1 to 5 once and once only is valid even if it stops at 5 or contains numbering errors.) The most important thing is to check you have the numbers 1 to 5 each once and once only on your Councillor vote.
However, the more boxes you number the more effective your vote will become. You can never harm your most preferred candidates by continuing to number more boxes. There's a view out there that it's best to stop once you've numbered all the candidates you like, but it is generally better to keep going and put those you are lukewarm about ahead of those you might mildly oppose or feel like you know nothing about, and those ahead of any who you really cannot stand. A good example of why preferencing matters is Zelinda Sherlock's win in 2018. Sherlock was 17th on primary votes but overtook six other candidates to win, including Ron Christie who started with almost twice as many votes as her.
For Lord Mayor and Deputy preferencing is optional. I recommend numbering all the boxes (or leaving only your least preferred candidate blank is the same thing.)
A reader has posted a tool where you can order your vote and make notes as you go here.
"Alderman" vs "Councillor"
Hobart Council made the unusual decision to allow councillors to choose the term "alderman" or "councillor" as their title. Currently Aldermen Zucco, Briscoe, Sexton, Thomas and Behrakis use the "alderman" title and Councillors Reynolds, Burnet, Harvey, Dutta, Fox, Sherlock and Coats use "councillor" (a perfect green-blue split except for Coats.) This guide uses the term "councillor" as a collective term for members of the council. However if I find it desirable to refer to a given incumbent with a title then I use their preferred title.
Candidates for Lord Mayor and Deputy
The following are declared candidates for Lord Mayor, all of whom are listed in the councillor guide. A candidate cannot run for both Mayor and Deputy, and the winner of each position needs to also be elected as a councillor to serve. Candidate names appear on ballot papers in rotated order.
Lord Mayor (8 candidates)
Bloomfield, Louise
Elliot, Louise
Harvey, Bill (incumbent councillor)
Kelly, John
Reynolds, Anna (incumbent Lord Mayor and councillor)
Marti Zucco (incumbent alderman)
Candidates for Councillor (44 for 12 positions)
The following are the candidates in this record field. There is one vacancy (Peter Sexton).
I am trying to keep this section close to neutral without it being totally boring. Some biases may sneak through (or be overcompensated for) but my main interest in this section is in providing a resource.
Each candidate's name, with a few exceptions where I haven't yet found a campaign page, is a link to what seems to be the main page or a campaign page or other web presence for that candidate. For incumbents and former council members I give years of HCC service in brackets after their name.
Ticket/team webpages, if any, are listed in the Tickets/teams section below.
All current councillors have a Councillor page on the HCC website. For each candidate a set of alternative links, where available, follows in brackets at the end of their mini-bio.
Candidate names appear on ballot papers in rotated order.
Harvey, Bill (2007-14, 2016-present) (Tasmanian Greens) former English teacher, frequent Greens state candidate, formerly involved in Malaysian/Chinese business college and boutique wine delivery, Landcare board member and chair (Facebook, Twitter, linkedin)
Kelly, John - former long-term owner of State Cinema, Hobart Citizen of the Year 2016, Vice President of North Hobart Retailers Association and Hobart Heritage Tram Association, sporting, Army Reserve and charity involvements (Facebook, Instagram)
Reynolds, Anna (2014-present, Lord Mayor 2018-present) incumbent Lord Mayor, former CEO for Multicultural Council of Tasmania, former Greens advisor (and sometime candidate) and climate change organiser for WWF, PolSci graduate. (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, linkedin)
Zucco, Marti (1992-present) longest serving alderman in Hobart's history, businessman, veteran restaurateur, frequent candidate for state and federal politics, one-man political popcorn generator. (Twitter, linkedin)
Retiring Councillor
Peter Sexton has announced his retirement from the Council. Sexton was first elected to Council in 1999 on a recount and has remained on Council ever since, albeit very narrowly in 2018. He was almost elected Deputy in 2009 (losing to Burnet by 76 votes) and briefly served as Deputy in 2018 after a 6-5 round-table vote by councillors. My assessments have usually classed Sexton as the most moderate member of the "blue" grouping or at times as a "blue"-leaning centrist.
Teams/Tickets (etc)
There is a long history of candidates sometimes forming tickets and alliances to contest council elections though there is little evidence that non-party tickets generate effective preference flows. At present 27 of the 44 candidates, including 9 of the 11 recontesting councillors, are known to be on some kind of team or ticket. Tickets are sometimes described as parties but they are not. Tickets and alliances detected so far (with ticket websites where known) include:
* Your Hobart Independents: Reynolds, Dutta, Sherlock, Chopra, Corr, Etherington, Kate Kelly, Shaw - this ticket headed by the incumbent Lord Mayor is an left ticket that supports public transport and climate change action and opposes the proposed cable car. At least two members are former Greens, two are ex-Labor and four have no party background I'm aware of. The ticket initially seemed to talk up teal links but Reynolds has since walked away from the teal label saying they are "aqua".
* our Hobart Community Team: Three couples: Bai/Gao, Christie/Christie and Davies/Rothery. Yet another odd ticket concept involving Ron Christie after his "Hobart's Home Team" in 2014, and yet again running more than one candidate on the same ticket for Deputy. Bai's website is in Chinese and most other members of the team have not campaigned actively beyond joint advertising on the ticket's Facebook page.
* Tasmanian Greens: Burnet, Harvey, Kitsos, Taylor, Volf
* Back to Basics: Behrakis, Bloomfield, Coats, Liu, Thurley and Zucco are running using the slogan "Let's Get Hobart Back To Basics" on social media and some corflutes with identical graphic design apart from different colours. Zucco and Behrakis also have a number of apparently co-ordinated sign placements. I have not seen any central presence or ticket announcement as yet but am treating them as at least a team for campaign purposes. Also two days after the unveil of these candidates' logos, a Hobart Chamber of Commerce ad in the Mercury also included the words "Back to Basics". The Chamber of Commerce often endorsed tickets circa the 1990s.
* Elliot / Briscoe Lord Mayor/Deputy ticket
An article in The Examiner has warned voters against tickets, alleging they could lead to more factionalism, but in fact tickets are more like alliances of convenience that don't predict voting behaviour on Council very well because there's nothing to hold them together. Sherlock was elected on a ticket with Thomas but has voted with six other councillors more often than him. Briscoe was first elected on a left ticket but has voted with the right more often than not for much of his career.
An interesting example is the presence of Chopra on the Hobart Independents ticket. This ticket is likely to appeal to the secular left and I have no evidence (unless approvingly posting a very generic misquote of Ayn Rand counts) that Chopra's politics are any different from other members, but Chopra's independent church has hosted and been encouraged by the President of the Australian Christian Churches (nee Assemblies of God Australia) as part of its religious outreach.
As usual there have been several endorsements of candidates by other candidates, eg Fox has endorsed the Your Hobart Independents ticket and Behrakis has endorsed McKee.
Behrakis has issued an online how to vote card that endorses the remaining five "Back to Basics" candidates on an equal footing with Elliott, Spender, McKie, Briscoe, and Geng. Elliott has issued a very similar one. One Hobart Independents how to vote has been seen on Sherlock's page that (unfortunately) recommends only 1 votes for Lord Mayor and Deputy without encouraging voters to give preferences, and a 1-8 ticket vote only for Councillor.
Although at least one candidate is an ALP member and several candidates (noted above or below whre known) are Liberals, neither major party has endorsed candidates at this election.
Form Guide
This section includes a summary of past election performances (where any known) and histories of any known party or quasi-party involvements, and also assessments of past voting patterns. This one is again in reverse alphabetical order. Many new candidates have no previous known electoral form, but this section isn't about saying that more or less electoral form is good. It is mainly for the purpose of saying how people have gone in the past for those interested in trying to guess how they'll go in the future.
Note that for the 2014 election the number of seats elected at a time was increased from (usually) six to twelve, resulting in large drops in the primary votes for several incumbent councillors.
Zucco, Marti - First elected to Council in 1992, Zucco's record is of always being re-elected comfortably without ever polling quota, and sometimes struggling to get preferences. Missed out for Deputy in 2011 when beaten by Christie by six votes at key exclusion point; not competitive in other leadership tilts. In 2014, elected fifth as Councillor, but also finished only fifth for Deputy Mayor. In 2018 elected eighth. Independent candidate for Legislative Council a few times (best 25% in Newdegate 1993). Unsuccessfully sought preselection for Liberal Party for 2010 state election, attempt squelched by pro-Elise Archer forces, quit party. Palmer United Party candidate for Franklin 2013 federal election polling very respectable 6.1%. Involved in dispute with Jacqui Lambie, quit party and ran as independent for Denison polling 788 votes. My assessments have consistently shown Zucco to be one of the most hardline pro-commerce ("blue") councillors on council.
Volf, Nathan - Support candidate for Greens in Clark 2021, polling 442 votes.
Vogel, Stefan - Candidate in 2018 with low-key Liberal endorsement, polling 0.76%
Thurley, Debra - Clarence councillor 2014-18, elected 11th out of 12 with 3.0% of the primary vote. Vote dropped slightly to 2.9% in 2018 and defeated, had also lost narrowly in 2011 attempt. Palmer United Party candidate for Denison 2013 federal (1576 votes) and Franklin 2014 state (743 votes as one of five on ticket). Contested Rumney 2017 LegCo as an independent polling last of six with 5.7%.
Thomas, Damon - First elected to Council in 2009 polling 8.7% of the councillor vote and finishing fourth after preferences. Then won Lord Mayor at first attempt (2011) defeating Helen Burnet narrowly on preferences with 51.5% two-candidate preferred. Defeated by Sue Hickey 52.5-47.5 in 2014; polled second on Councillor ballot with 16.3% (over two quotas). Second in Mayor ballot in 2018 but way behind Reynolds; elected fourth as a Councillor with vote falling to 7.4%. My assessments have generally shown Thomas as a fairly moderate member of the pro-commerce ("blue") grouping on council.
Taylor, Bec - 2018 Greens candidate polling 256 votes. Greens support candidate for Clark 2021 (state) polling impressive 943 votes (eg much higher profile Vica Bayley polled 1372).
Spender, Duncan - Liberal Democrats Senator for three months in 2019 filling casual vacancy caused by David Leyonhjelm's failed attempt to switch to state politics. Defeated at 2019 Senate election with party polling 1.9% in NSW.
Sherlock, Zelinda - Labor candidate for Denison (now Clark) at 2018 election polling 1998 votes. Ran on a Damon Thomas led ticket and polled 2.2% of the primary vote in 2018 Council election but had very good preference flows and overtook six candidates to be elected 11th. In this term Sherlock has been the most moderate member of the "green" (left) grouping in Council voting patterns.
Shaw, Juniper - Greens candidate for Clark at the 2019 federal election polling 9.6%.
Reynolds, Anna - Greens candidate for Denison (now Clark) at 2013 federal election polling a rather modest 7.9%, but then polled 571 primaries (3.2%) for Council in 2014, unseating fellow Green Harvey. Also polled 1433 below the line votes as Greens #3 for Senate 2016. Although elected as a Green, voted more like a Greens-leaning independent in her first term on Council, not voting with any other councillor on more than 67% of contested motions. Ran for Lord Mayor as an independent in 2018 and won spectacularly, polling 23.4% of the mayoral primary in a field of 11 and defeating Damon Thomas with over 62% of the two-candidate vote; also elected first as Councillor with 15.3% (just over two quotas). In the 2018-22 term has been one of the more moderate members of the "green" (left) grouping in Council voting patterns.
Harvey, Bill - Elected to Council at the third attempt in 2007, polling over 600 primaries and performing strongly on preferences. In 2011 (as lead candidate in that year's slate) got more than half the Green ticket vote and was easily re-elected. Shock defeat by fellow Green Reynolds in 2014, attributed in some circles to his moderate voting record, but returned on a recount in 2016. Topped the Deputy Lord Mayor primary count in both 2011 and 2014 as the sole Green but beaten 46:54 and 45.1:54.9 by Christie after preferences each time. Ran as a heavily promoted second candidate for the Greens in Denison at the 2013 state election, and seemed an outside chance to get elected based on some polling, but ultimately Green vote was not that high and he polled 1614 votes. In 2018 ran as Greens candidate for Lord Mayor, boosting his Councillor primary vote to 7.1% and was elected third. I have consistently assessed Harvey as a lighter shade of green than Burnet and former Greens Councillor Philip Cocker; in this term he became far less likely to vote with the "blue" hardliners than before and had the second "greenest" voting pattern after Burnet.
Fox, Jax - Greens support candidate at 2018 Franklin (state) polling 909 votes. In 2018 contested the Council election as an endorsed Green but left the party during the final days of voting, claiming the party had a vertical power structure following fallout over the parliamentary party's views on alleged Chinese influence attempts in Tasmanian politics. Polled 3.0% and was elected tenth anyway. Contested Clark 2021 (state) as an ungrouped independent polling 537 votes (0.8%). In this term I have found Fox to be one of the more moderate - or perhaps less predictable is more accurate - members of the council's "green" (left) grouping.
Dutta, Mike - Dutta contested the 1996 election as a minor candidate on the Valentine/Bonham-led Hobart Community Team, polling 270 votes (1.5%). Much more competitive in 2014 when he polled 467 votes (ninth on primaries) but as with many non-incumbents did poorly on preferences and finished 17th. In 2018 improved his vote to 860 (4.1%) and was elected ninth. Contested Clark 2021 (state) as an ungrouped independent polling 615 votes (0.9%). In this term I have found Dutta to be the third most "green" (left) member of Council.
Corr, Brian - Elected second in ward to Joondalup (WA) council in 2006. Re-elected unopposed 2007 and overwhelmingly against one opponent in 2011. Labor candidate for state seat of Kingsley (WA) in 2013 but there was a 2PP swing of 10.2% to the Liberal incumbent in the seat (just a few points larger than average in the context of an overall 5.4% swing to the Barnett Government plus a sophomore surge for his opponent). Ran for Hobart Council in 2018 polling 2.1%.
Christie, Ron - Elected to Council for a two-year term in 1999, defeated 2000, fifth elected in 2002. Almost defeated in 2007, surviving a fight with fellow incumbents Lyn Archer and Eric Hayes by nine votes after reportedly clearing his desk in the belief that he had lost. In 2011 polled much more strongly than before, being third elected as councillor and winning DLM over Zucco by six votes at the crucial exclusion. In 2014 ran at the head of an otherwise obscure "Hobart's Home Team" ticket and retained his Deputy position easily. Polled a very weak councillor primary (just 455 votes) but was elected 4th on a strong flow of preferences from mayoral contenders Hickey and Thomas. For a while Christie was one of the most hardline and at times even quirkily extreme members of the "blue" cluster of pro-commerce councillors. However from about 2012 his voting behaviour became more moderate while still placing him in the "blue" cluster. Briefly became Lord Mayor in 2018 but performance in the role was much panned (see 2018 guide) and lost his councillor seat by 20 votes. Said he would "do a Turnbull and disappear" thereafter though as of Sep 27 this is a pretty fair description of his campaign to date.
Coats, Will - Polled just 1.1% in the original 2018 election (where he ran with low-key Liberal Party endorsement) but became a Councillor in January 2020 on Tanya Denison's recount where he was fourth on recount primaries but won after preferences by just 1.77 votes. Ran for Clark (state) for Liberals in 2021 election polling 1690 votes. Polled 15.8% as Liberal federal candidate for Clark 2022.
Burnet, Helen - has a long history of mostly strong electoral performance for the Greens. Came within about 200 votes of beating the party's endorsed ticket-leader to a seat at her first Council attempt in 2002, then easily elected in 2005 with 14.6%, which rose to 19.2% in 2009. After a competitive loss to Ruzicka for the Deputy Lord Mayor position in 2007, Burnet defeated Peter Sexton by 76 votes to win it in 2009. Ran for Lord Mayor in 2011 losing narrowly to Damon Thomas with 48.5% two-candidate preferred. Polled over 3000 primaries as #2 Denison Green candidate in the 2010 state election, but narrowly excluded behind Andrew Wilkie in the cut-up (with Wilkie nearly winning on her preferences). Contested the Greens' process to replace retiring Senator Bob Brown, but they preselected Peter Whish-Wilson instead. (Instead ran as #2 candidate for 2013 Senate). In 2014 Burnet was third elected with 12.4% (1.6 quotas) as a Councillor but was third for Lord Mayor. Also again Denison Green support candidate at the 2018 state election but less successful than in 2010. In 2018 councillor primary vote fell to 6.9% (probably because Harvey ran for Mayor) but elected second anyway, and won Deputy with a 35.5% primary vote in a field of 11, nearly three times that of any other candidate. I have consistently assessed Burnet as one of the two greenest councillors alongside Philip Cocker (when still on Council) and with Cocker retired Burnet has been clearly the greenest councillor in the current term.
Briscoe, Jeff - Narrowly elected as councillor in 1994 and consistently increased his primary vote at every election from then until 2011 (when he topped the councillor poll with well over a quota.) However in 2014 he polled only 502 councillor votes and was elected sixth. In 2018 he more than doubled this and was elected fifth with 5.3%. Ran for Lord Mayor three times unsuccessfully (polling in the 20-30% range each time, two of those against Rob Valentine). Briscoe was initially elected on a ticket linked to local residents' groups and progress associations but soon switched to the "blue" side of Council. I've generally assessed him as a member of the "blue" cluster, though not very predictably and with a strong green tinge on certain issues such as the cable car. Briscoe contested the Legislative Council seat of Hobart for the Greens in 1994 (polling 23%) but a falling-out over preselection order saw him quit the ticket and run as an independent for Denison (state) in 1996, polling 551 votes. He later joined the Liberal Party and contested Franklin for it in 2002 polling just 787 votes. He was a supporter of Sherlock's (ALP) campaign in 2018 and was supported at the 2018 election by Liberal Speaker Sue Hickey (who ran with him in 2014) but I am unsure if he is now associated with any party.
Bloomfield, Louise - Polled 1.2% in 2018 where she ran on a ticket with Zucco and also with low-key Liberal Party endorsement. Then beaten by Coats by 1.77 votes in the above-mentioned recount.
Behrakis, Simon - Liberal Candidate for Denison (state) in 2018, polling 2317 votes. Then stood for Legislative Council seat of Hobart, finishing third with 19%. Elected sixth in first Hobart Council bid in 2018 with 4.7% of the vote, and with low-key Liberal Party endorsement. Narrowly failed in bid to enter state parliament in 2021 Clark contest where he polled 3722 votes and came just 346 short of dislodging ex-Labor Liberal Madeleine Ogilvie. My voting patterns assessment found him to be one of the two most hardline "blue" (pro-development) members of the council, with a very similar voting record to that of Marti Zucco.
Issues
This list is not necessarily in order and will be expanded.
1. UTAS Move to The City - The University of Tasmania has been buying up buildings in the CBD and moving from its present Sandy Bay campus to the city. Supporters argue that the move will make the university more accessible and modern, revitalise the CBD and free up current campus land for housing developments. They also argue that it will improve research collaboration. Opponents argue that the new university will lack campus culture, that the university has lost focus on education while so absorbed in real estate speculation, that the CBD will not be revitalised because students don't spend much, that businesses will be actually adversely impacted, and that the university's proposed housing developments would have environmental impacts. From time to time completely silly arguments are seen such as a claim that people from Chigwell don't go to the current university because they'd have to catch two buses.
I believe the matter is ultimately for the Tasmanian Planning Commission not the Council but various councillors and candidates have taken positions. A motion moved by Briscoe on the matter in March saw a wide range of responses to particular clauses with only Zucco voting with Briscoe on all clauses and only Burnet voting against all of them; only Zucco and Dutta supported Briscoe's call for an upper house inquiry.
A list of candidates who have expressed a general view will be expanded below, this is an incomplete list at this stage. Some candidates - especially some sitting councillors - appear to have shifted their positions over time and I will note this where I find links to a previous position that clearly contradicts their current view. (Readers are very welcome to send such links.)
In favour: Christie, Bai, Burnet, Harvey, Volf
Against: Lohberger, Bloomfield, Briscoe (but in 2016 he was for it), Elliot, John Kelly, Johnstone, McKee, Thurley, Coats, Zucco, Chopra, Grech, Jackson, Dutta (though with some hint a yes vote in elector poll might change his position if it happened), Liu, Etherington, Behrakis
Other positions:
Posselt ("Neither", sees move as inevitable but supports repurposing campus in a different way to Utas)
Corr (personally against but will follow result of elector poll)
Kate Kelly (will follow result of elector poll - personal position "Leave existing Sandy Bay faculties in situ. Upgrade existing assets. Finish the city refurbishment of already purchased sites")
Taylor (similar to Corr but was initially positive prior to experiences with Utas)
Sherlock (has conflict of interest, cannot vote)
Spender (will ignore poll, will apply planning scheme and does not state any prior position)
Phipps (argues that some parts of the campus cannot be moved but supports compromise)
Thomas (supports continuing presence at Sandy Bay but also successful operation in city, states he supports Save UTAS campaign but wants "solutions which actually meet both the campaign and the University's needs.")
2. Affordable/Available Housing and Short Stay Accommodation - Hobart has seen a boom in house pricing and a shortage of rental properties in recent years with an ongoing debate about the extent to which (i) increases in short-stay accommodation (ii) the state's recently good economy and (iii) buy-ups by investors from elsewhere are causing the issue. Council has moved towards limiting new conversions of entire houses to short stay accommodation. The issue poses a quandary for the "green" side of council because the "blues" can often argue that a development the "green" side would normally oppose on the basis of aesthetic or neighbour concerns would also help reduce the housing crisis. Fox has sometimes voted with the "blues" for this reason. Some of the "blues" and their supporters publish selected voting records to support their case.
3. Scooters - An e-Scooter trial commenced in the city in early 2021. The scooters have been popular with users and have a high approval rating in (albeit under-documented) polling but have also created some problems including a small number of significant accidents and users (far from all but too many) leaving them badly parked on footpaths. Some candidates with known views (more to be added) include:
supportive - Posselt, Kitsos, Chopra
opposed - Lohberger, Grech, Jackson
cautiously supportive - John Kelly
somewhat critical - Elliot, Briscoe
A donation received and voluntarily declared by Reynolds from a person later involved in a scooter operation was the subject of conflict of interest claims by Briscoe and Elliot.
4. Crowther Statue - William Crowther, a doctor and local business figure who was Premier for less than a year in 1878-9, has had a statue in his honour in Frankin Square since his death in 1885, apparently for no real reason compared to greater notables in state history other than that there existed the money to pay for it. This statue has been increasingly contentious because of Crowther's alleged and still debated role in the mutilation of the remains of Tasmanian Aboriginal man William Lanne. Following a reinterpretation art process, Council voted 7-4 to remove the statue from Franklin Square (entire "green" side and Thomas in favour, Behrakis, Briscoe, Coats and Zucco against). However the issue may be revisited by the next Council.
5. Cable Car - The cable car proposal was the main issue in the 2018 campaign (see 2018 guide). With approval now in the hands of the Resource Management and Planning Appeals Tribunal following the Council's 9-3 rejection of the proposal (more than a day's worth of footage here!) the issue may not play as big a role this year, but then again if the appeal judgement drops during the campaign that is bound to be significant. All sitting councillors except Behrakis, Zucco and Coats voted against the cable car approval. All Greens and Hobart Independents candidates oppose the cable car as does John Kelly; new supporting candidates include Grech, Liu and (depending on the proposal) Elliot.
6. Roads, rates and rubbish, or more? The current council - as with many before it - has been criticised by some opponents who claim it spends too much time on broader political issues that are not the core business of a council. By my own count broader, arguably extra-Council issues accounted for maybe 12% of the contested motions in the current term of Council (and doubtless a much lower percentage if including uncontested motions.) But while cases like Council involvements in symbolic statements about non-Hobart issues are easy to demarcate, there was a good example of how blurry lines can get in some comments by Elliot and Sherlock. Elliot said that domestic violence, obesity, smoking and literacy were not council issues and Sherlock and Dutta both asserted that they were, referencing the Local Government Act and identified review directions.
7. Parking - car parking is a major issue for a range of candidates across matters including lack of parking space in the city, pricing, competition for spaces around North Hobart's busy restaurant strip, difficulties with metering systems, and impact of parking pricing on businesses. I expect to add more detail to this section as I am seeing a lot of comments about it as I add profiles.
8. Lord Mayoral Chief of Staff - a rather weird late breaking item with Behrakis raising the matter of apparent informal headhunting for a putative Lord Mayor Chief of Staff position, a $170,000 position that it seems is being actively explored by staff independent of the current council. This raises the issue of how much control council really has over its own expenditures. A subsequent Mercury report indicated that the prospective recruiter claimed to be acting on behalf of the Lord Mayor. Reynolds was reported as declining to comment.
9. AFL Stadium - during the campaign a proposed AFL Stadium was announced for Macquarie Point by the state Liberal government. Labor and the Greens oppose the plan. I have not seen that much candidate engagement but expect plenty of candidates will be against it too.
Campaigning Issues
This section deals with issues of campaigning that are not based on specific issues:
1. Elliot Central! I can't remember any new Hobart candidate ever being involved in so much pre-election discussion as Louise Elliot who has been the subject of numerous social and mainstream media battles - such that she even has a 13-point (!) FAQ style page on her website that seeks to rebut several of the claims made against her. I'm sure I have not even seen 15% of the stuff that is out there yet and could easily write a full article about it all but examples have included:
* The Mercury reported that Elliot was accused of but disagreed with a claim of racism made by Tasmanian Aboriginal Centre campaign co-ordinator Nala Mansell in response to a question from Helen Burnet. A descendant of William Crowther had referred to "the tragedy that was the final days of the Tasmanian Aboriginal people" (a wording that is very offensive to many Tasmanian Aboriginal people since it wrongly implies they are extinct) and Elliot had criticised outraged responses by saying he was referring to the last "full blooded Aboriginal people" and that this was "biological fact". (There is plenty more from the Crowther statue debate here but it's pretty tedious going.)
* Lord Mayor Reynolds was accused of grabbing Elliot's arm and physically detaining her to accost her following a meeting. (Reynolds agrees she touched Elliot and employed the word "bullshit" - for which she apologised - but denies that Elliot was grabbed forcefully or detained.) There is a current Code of Conduct complaint awaiting resolution re this incident.
* Elliot made a Code of Conduct complaint against Reynolds regarding the electric charging of Reynolds' car. The complaint was dismissed in full with part (but not all) of it deemed "vexatious, meaning, that it was brought without sufficient grounds." (This is far from the only campaign incident involving Reynolds' car - she has been targeted by Behrakis and Zucco who claim that her use of a car including to drive to a meeting about parking is inconsistent with her views about cars in the city.) Another Code of Conduct complaint over social media posts was also dismissed.
* Reports of legal threats/concerns notices/claims about defamation involving Elliot in both directions, publicly including:
(i) correspondence between Elliot's and Kate Kelly's lawyers re posts by Kelly (reported by Tasmanian Times)
(ii) a request from Reynolds regarding moderation of content claimed to be defamatory on Elliot's Facebook page.
(iii) an email from Elliot to Togatus and writer Desmond Marcenko threatening legal action over an article in Togatus attacking Elliot. The article, which I have seen, has been removed.
(iv) a Concerns Notice sent by Thomas Ellison's solicitor to Elliot that Ellison now says will result in legal action.
Informally I understand the above are not the only legal claims and threats in this council election campaign and that there have been at least two not involving Elliot in either direction, but it is often hard for me to comment without having seen all the material. I am not aware of any actual writs being lodged yet.
* Various left-wing candidates have claimed they were attacked by racists and pseudonymous trolls during online debates involving Elliot. There is no suggestion that Elliot instigated the attacks.
* Elliot signed off an email reportedly about Fox's views on landlord and tenant issues in 2020 as "Kermit (Louise) Elliot" in a apparent allusion to Fox's non-binary gender identity.
* On 6 October Elliot posted black and white images of a man and offered a $500 reward for the man's identity without initial explanation, an action criticised as akin to vigilantism by Kate Kelly, Sherlock, Mitchell, Bloomfield and probably by the time you read this others. This led to this exchange of character references between Kate Kelly and Elliot. Elliot alleges the man vandalised her corflutes with stencils and also says her corflutes have been especially popular targets. (I have seen one case in which an Elliot sign and the metal pickets attached to it had been flattened while a directly adjacent Zucco sign was untouched.)
Whatever one thinks of Elliot there seems no doubt that if elected she will take over the mantle of #1 media magnet of the Hobart City Council, which was held by Zucco for at least 25 years before he was overtaken in the current term by Fox. Some journalists are rumoured to be reluctant to report any more because they have reported on one candidate so many times already.
2. General Narkiness: There is a perception about that this is, alas, the nastiest and most personal Hobart City campaign seen for some time. While there may be elements of rose-coloured glasses in this, Facebook seems to have been a breeding ground for conflicts between several rather volatile candidates. There have also been reports of racist graffiti against Dutta and Sherlock. The tone of the campaign featured in an ABC radio report about Elliot and Briscoe using an image of Cruella de Vil to attack Reynolds' ticket. As well as legal issues and UTAS campaign issues there have also been various alleged incidents of doxxing.
The most artistic flame attempt of the election so far was by Sherlock against Briscoe: "a populist politician who has the structural integrity of a sand-castle below the high tide mark".
3. Signage: Elliot's use of billboards outside the campaign period attracted criticism from Dutta who said this was an attempt to circumvent spending caps, a claim which Elliot rejected as 'offensive to hard-working people'. (Mercury paraphrase.) In general there has been rather heavy early use of signs and in cases billboards by many candidates and some tickets. Of note is a Sherlock sign which makes a play on her surname with a magnifying glass over the O.
4. Compulsory Voting: In 2018, around 62% of Hobart voters returned a vote (some of these being disallowed) and with compulsory voting this will increase (it will be interesting to see how high the turnout gets). Previously voting in Council elections has been very age-skewed statewide with younger voters less likely to take part. It may be expected that compulsory voting will result in more left-leaning outcomes for this reason, but it could also be that younger left voters are over-represented in the existing turnout compared to other young voters, and the changes may not be that large.
5. A Long Campaign: This campaign has been notable for the number of new candidates (eg Posselt, Johnstone, Kate Kelly, Chopra) who were involved in online campaigning long before the election and indeed even before voting was made compulsory.
6. General Manager's Rolls: In 2018 there was a lot of concern about possible stacking of the General Manager's Rolls with Asian students and the like, but this proved to be groundless (not to mention xenophobic) since the number of non-citizen enrolments was not that large (comparable to business enrolments) and the candidate supposed to benefit the most polled poorly. This election I have so far seen more complaints about business voting. Note that voting for enrolments on these rolls is voluntary.
7. Corr Restraining Order: On the first day of voting the Mercury reported that Brian Corr, a candidate on Reynolds' ticket, had breached an interim restraining order by sending a letter during a neighbourhood dispute. He was sentenced without conviction or costs to a 12 month good behaviour undertaking. Corr alleges the matter is being used by opponents as dirt. Given the existing controversy over the altercation between Reynolds and Elliot I would not be surprised if opponents tried to connect the two matters.
Polling
A private poll attributed to local firm Myriad Research and conducted through the Q&A Research panel has been widely reported. The client is unknown but appears likely to be the university or some other supporter of the move. It is primarily concerned with voter views of the UTAS move and includes a message testing section where the voter is given various statements for and against the move to agree or disagree with and then asked if their view of the move has changed. The survey appears well designed compared to many other message testing attempts and is not a "push poll". The poll canvasses approval ratings for Reynolds, Briscoe, Elliot and UTAS Chancellor Alison Watkins. It is unknown whether any results will be published.
Prospects: Lord Mayor
I am being cautious about any predictions for these elections because of the change to compulsory voting and because there is no standard for measuring the impact it might have. However, when elections had massive margins last time, a 50% increase or so in the voter base is only going to do so much, all else being equal.
Reynolds won the mayoralty by an enormous margin in 2018, in contrast to close elections in 2011 and 2014. In the past, Lord Mayors who have won by large margins have been re-elected by large margins, while those who have won narrowly have often lost (as with one-termers Broadby, Freeman and Thomas). Of the sitting Councillors, only Harvey, Zucco and Coats are running against Reynolds. Harvey and Zucco weren't a threat in 2018 though Zucco should poll better in the absence of Briscoe and Thomas, while Coats has had only half a term and a state election run to establish himself. The less predictable challengers are the high-profile outsiders Kelly and Elliot, though Elliot at least may be too easy to brand as right-wing in what has become a very left-wing city. Do their criticisms of the council bite across the political spectrum? We'll see but I'll be surprised if Reynolds isn't returned.
Prospects: Deputy Lord Mayor
The Deputy contest is a little trickier because despite the large size of Burnet's victory last time, there is room for an argument that Greens voters were over-represented in voluntary voting in an election where the cable car played a major role, and might not get such a high primary vote this time around. Nonetheless votes will scatter and to some degree exhaust between the four incumbent and ex-Council "blue" candidates. The remaining competition comes mainly from first-termer Dutta and off-council candidate Posselt. Maybe in theory if someone other than Burnet gets a decent primary they might outperform Burnet on preferences but there's no evidence of that being a thing in the 2018 flows where in fact she drew away from her nearest challengers as the count continued.
Prospects: Councillors
I am being especially cagey about the Councillor race because when one is talking about seats that are sometimes decided by only dozens of votes, it would be overconfident to try to say what happens when you boost the voter pool by 50% and change the issues mix. This is uncharted territory! I wouldn't be surprised to see some turnover and I think there's enough strength in the challengers here to potentially kick out a few incumbents - it's just not that easy to pick who. It's possible on the other hand that compulsory voting will favour incumbents (or high-profile names from the past like Christie) but I wouldn't be that sure of that either.
The current Council is 6-6 "blue"/"green". I don't take it for granted that this election will again return that balance, and if new candidates are elected we'll have to see how they will vote, which isn't clear in all cases. To start with the incumbents, on the "blue" side there is a vacancy with Sexton quitting. Four others were elected in this order last time: Thomas, Briscoe, Behrakis, Zucco with Coats getting in on a recount. None of these polled a big enough vote last time to be individually sure that they are safe from the normal shifts in Council primary votes between incumbents and the impact of compulsory voting and it is also hard to avoid noting that all these incumbents are blokes. Behrakis is now far more prominent after almost winning in the state election and I would expect his vote to go up. Coats has also had a boost from state and federal runs. Thomas may benefit from the departure of Sexton. "You snooze you lose" could apply to almost any incumbents so all of these seem well advised to make a proper effort.
On the "green" side Reynolds will be re-elected as a councillor. The endorsed Greens vote has been good for three seats in 2014 and 2018 (albeit in the latter case narrowly and with a candidate who had quit the party), but with competition from Reynolds' ticket and a range of other left candidates they could struggle to still be good for three. Running Harvey for Lord Mayor and Burnet for Deputy in 2018 appeared to shore up Harvey's councillor seat after he lost to Reynolds in 2014, but it damaged Burnet's primary vote and it will be interesting to see whether compulsory voting sees any level of generational shift within the Greens ticket. I don't know whether Dutta and Sherlock will be both re-elected, though I expect at least one of them will. Fox (who has had a high-profile but turbulent time on the council) has a degree of left-underground and LGBTIQA+ support but faces a big challenge especially under compulsory voting and without Greens endorsement.
On the likely "blue" side Elliot and John Kelly (though Kelly is anti-cable car and might slot in as a more moderate "blue" or perhaps just all over the place) are the most obviously prominent outside challengers. Bloomfield has a somewhat higher profile than on the first attempt and has done a lot of doorknocking. Thurley has won a Council election before and is fairly high profile but I am not sure how established that profile is on this side of the river yet. On the likely "green" side several of the Hobart Independents candidates could be competitive, especially if Reynolds' personal vote increases (among these Kate Kelly has to my knowledge been campaigning for the longest). Posselt has run a big campaign on social media, and may appeal to Labor voters. Johnstone is a little harder to pigeonhole politically from his mix of issue positions but is another who has been very active. But with the shift to compulsory voting there may well be surprises and names not on my radar yet at all could well get elected. I ask everyone not to take my speculations here seriously!
Note For Candidates
Any candidate may contact me once only to have their main link changed (this is the link that the candidate's name goes to, if I can find one) and/or links added, or to supply extra bio information (which I will use or not use at my discretion, and I will not go beyond 3 lines per candidate). Requests that blame me for not unearthing information, or are in any way disrespectful or threatening will result in that candidate getting no links at all! Feel free to whinge about alleged bias (etc) in comments though.
Anyone may of course advise me of any clear factual errors or clearly misleading content and I will fix these, but please do not stretch the concept of factual error to include differences of opinion, interpretation or emphasis. Also I will not remove material from bios where I consider it to be something that voters should know. Again, the comments section is open to anyone wishing to comment.
Any comments about this guide that I become aware of by any means including indirect hearsay are on the public record, especially if stated otherwise. In the past there have not only been threats but also blatant attempts to "get at" my coverage by commenting about it to people likely to pass comments on to me, and none of this will be tolerated.
At least four of the candidates (Bloomfield, Briscoe, Coats and Elliot) have made submissions to Rob Valentine's Legislative Council inquiry into UTAS (otherwise known as the sop to his Sandy Bay millionairre landlords).
ReplyDeleteI won't make comment on all of them (mostly because I'm afraid of you and I being sued if I dare criticise Louiee Elliot) but i will say the two pages of Briscoe's submission are utterly incoherent ramblings. And apparently he's a teacher? If Jeff Briscoe represents the standard of senior secondary education in Tasmania, who would the state bother with a University at all?
Probably not that many Sandy Bay millionaire landlords in Valentine's electorate. It does include a little bit of Sandy Bay but it's about 150 houses (including mine.)
DeleteDon't forget that Ron Christie own/runs Hobart Town Tea Rooms 🍰
ReplyDeleteExcellent! Thankyou.
DeleteNot so much teal as "aqua"! I look forward to candidates describing themselves as cyan, turquoise, or Munsell 5BG!
DeleteI might be to blame for the "aqua" thing after grading some then sitting councillors as "aqua" or "cyan" in past editions of my voting patterns article. (None of the current lot qualified.)
DeleteDon't forget that Ron Christie owns/runs Hobart Town Tea Rooms 🍰
ReplyDeleteMitchell Cadence has a (nascent) website at https://cadence4hobart.com.
ReplyDeleteDuring the last council election, I was inspired (by this blog!) to number all boxes, and I made a webpage to help with this. It allows you to order candidate names by clicking and dragging.
ReplyDeleteHere it is for the 2022 Hobart City Council election: https://bit.ly/2022hcc
Please note that it doesn't work well on mobile, unfortunately. By the way, anyone can make their own list of names via this page: https://voteplan.github.io/
Thanks Kevin for another excellent Hobart City Council candidate guide!
Excellent! Thanks for the link.
DeleteThank you for your time and effort in compiling this information!
ReplyDelete