All candidates and connections are directed to the note for candidates at the bottom of this page.
Introductory Waffle
As an election thankfully closes out one of the Hobart Council's less dignified terms, here is my resource page for the 2026 Hobart City Council elections. This guide (like my 2014, 2018 and 2022 election guides) includes a list of candidates who are running for the Council for the 2026-30 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 and any polling. 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 a PayID option, or you can email me for bank account details. Please only donate if you are sure you can afford to.
Again I am hugely indebted to Darcy Murphy's spreadsheet for saving me hours of link-hunting. Thanks again also to my mother Pru Bonham for a bit of extra help with candidate-spotting etc.
For some complex background to the voting patterns of incumbent councillors, see Hobart City Council Voting Patterns 2022-6 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 (or not so 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 business 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 current term has been the most factionalised I have ever seen, with a strong pattern of seven on the green/left side and four on the blue/right side through the whole Council and strengthening as the term went on. The only member not so easily classified was Louise Bloomfield, whose votes leaned slightly to the green/left side early in the term but who I would have included in the blue/right cluster had I only used the last 2.5 years of data.
Voting is compulsory.
Because of overseas travel and work commitments I am unsure yet whether I will have time to do such guides for any other councils before voting starts. I am intending to do voting patterns articles for the recent term for at least two (!) other councils.
Vote Formally, Vote Well
The 2022 Council election was the first since the State Government 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.)
"Alderman" vs "Councillor"
Hobart Council made the unusual decision to allow councillors to choose the term "alderman" or "councillor" as their title. As at the election only Louise Bloomfield and Marti Zucco were still using "alderman" but I've been helpfully advised that recent legislation abolishes the title. The abolition takes effect from September 1, and the timing has annoyed at least one candidate with perhaps good reason as it comes after the campaign period has started. (I was woken up at TWO THIRTY AM in Samarkand by a flood of texts from Zucco re this matter.) Of course Councillors can run under any title they like but I am personally relieved not to have to make any more style decisions about who should be called what. This guide therefore now uses the term "councillor" as a collective term for all present and past council members, whatever title they used in the past.
Candidates for Lord Mayor
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 (11 candidates)
Candidates for Councillor (32 for 9 positions)
The following are the declared candidates.
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 exceptions where I cannot find 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.
All current councillors have a Councillor page on the HCC website.
Because of lack of time and difficulty with formatting while overseas, only a primary link is given for each candidate initially, except where links to businesses etc are used in text. Full social media links will be added in early October. I do not have access to some social media sites until I return and some information is missing for this reason. For lack of time I have in many cases copied from the previous guide for recontesting candidates if information is not obviously out of date. Updates on things missed are welcome - see note for candidates section at the bottom.
Candidate names appear on ballot papers in rotated order.
The info I am mostly interested in in these guides is a candidate's professional, political and community service history and other things of special interest. No "devoted fambly manne", no "ninth generation Tasmanian" etc. That stuff bores me to write (and is hard for me to verify), I suspect it would bore my readers, and candidates can say that stuff on their website.
Councillors Retiring
Lord Mayor Anna Reynolds has announced her retirement from the Council (but since abandoned her original intention to resign in August). Reynolds was elected to Council in 2014 as an endorsed Green, temporarily unseating fellow Green Bill Harvey. She ran for the mayoralty as an independent in 2018 and won spectacularly, topping the primary vote and beating Damon Thomas 62-38 on the final 2CP. 2022 was much closer with a 53.4-46.6 win over off-council challenger John Kelly. My assessments have consistently classified Reynolds as on the green/left side of council, in the most recent term more so than most of the endorsed Greens.
Gemma Kitsos has retired after two and a half years on council. A minor Greens candidate in 2022, Kitsos was elected on the recount when Helen Burnet was elected to state parliament in March 2024. Kitsos has been the most predictably green/left-voting councillor on the current council and also the least often on the losing side of motions.
Will Coats has also retired. Coats, a former state and federal Liberal candidate, has been elected twice on recounts, in 2020 (vacancy for Tanya Denison which he won from fourth place on recount primaries by 1.77 votes!) and 2023 (vacancy for Simon Behrakis which he won far more comfortably, after being defeated at the 2022 election). I've consistently classed Coats as one of the stauncher members of the blue/right grouping on council.
Former Lord Mayor Ron Christie was a declared runner but did not nominate.
Teams/Tickets
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. Any tickets that form will be noted here.
* Tasmanian Greens: Harvey, Sherlock, Hoare, Humphries, Templeton.
* "Common Sense Candidates" (scare quotes used because in so many cases a view described as "common sense" is neither commonly held nor sensible). On 5 October how to votes issued by various candidates were seen in which the candidate recommends a 1 vote for themselves and also that the voter number the following in order of preference for the races contested: Lennon, Wooley, Zucco, Dale, Behrakis, Elliot, Johnstone, Brumby, Liu, Murray, Thurley, Wan, Wilson. (As at 6 Oct, despite being listed on such how to votes I am unaware of Wooley or Johnstone posting them on their own pages - all the others listed have). These are all candidates associated with one or more (but not in all cases all) of the Council's "blue" faction, the Liberal Party or support for the proposed cable car.
The how to vote recommends that the voter "Make sure to leave all other boxes BLANK". This is legal but terrible voting advice. There is never any disadvantage in numbering more boxes unless the voter is so clerically challenged that by doing so they invalidate or more prematurely exhaust their own vote (unlikely). For instance, if these candidates are somewhat successful it would surely be better for them in implementing their goals to have, say, a Kelly who would vote with them three-quarters of the time or a Bloomfield who would vote with them probably more often than not, rather than a Sherlock or Dutta who would usually vote against them. Also if the Lord Mayor race turns out to be Kelly vs a left candidate, this advice is saying the voter should stop preferencing rather than preference Kelly, which could cause say Harvey or Posselt to be Lord Mayor.
Within the above, Behrakis, Elliot and Zucco (at least) all appear on identical "Putting Hobart First" signs that I think began to appear after the initial round of "Hobart First" signs were disallowed (see that section in "Third Party Campaigns").
Candidates often informally cross-endorse, for instance Zucco has endorsed Wooley as a fellow councillor candidate.
Party Links
Tasmania doesn't (and in my view should) require candidates to disclose present and recent party memberships (I would like to see all memberships since the previous election dislosed). The following is a list of what I believe to be as-last-known party memberships. Where any candidate believably advises me they never were or no longer are a member I'll remove them.
Greens: Harvey, Hoare, Humphries, Sherlock, Templeton
Labor: Bari*, Posselt, Wallace
Liberal: Behrakis, Bloomfield, Brumby, Dale, Johnstone, Lennon, Lowrie, McShane, Wan, Wilson*.
National: Elliot (unclear if current, and rumoured as a possible One Nation state or federal candidate but not publicly known to have joined ON)
Lutrawita Socialist Alliance: Campbell (Socialist Alliance is registered federally but not at state level).
Thurley and Zucco are former Palmer United candidates who I rather doubt are current members of the now United Australia Party.
* I have not confirmed that these candidates are members of the stated parties. I am assuming they are pending information otherwise based on professional connections to the stated party.
Third Party Campaigns/Endorsing Groups
* Hobart First: An alleged grassroots group (nobody believes this) of unknown membership numbers (always assume the smallest possible until proven otherwise). Hobart First is an obviously blue-side rates-cutting campaign that has been authorised among others by former councillor Jeff Briscoe, who ran as Louise Elliot's running mate at the 2022 election but lost his seat and is now running in Clarence. There are were signs up advertising it that often shared fence space with "blue" candidates, eg Zucco, Elliot, Behrakis. The signs came under fire in late September with news that council had ruled them to not clearly qualify for advertising material exemptions and therefore to require planning permission (which they did not have). Allies of the alleged group have suggested inconsistency with other third-party signs; I have not looked into whether that claim is valid.
* Save UTAS Campus: Although the University of Tasmania shelved its previous city-move plan which was a major issue at the 2022 election, supporters of the Sandy Bay campus remain active on the issue of effectively revitalising that campus. A Meet The Candidates forum was held on Sep 22 while I was overseas; recordings exist but are currently available only on the group's private page which has conditions of membership and use, therefore I am not currently in a position to report on this.
* Respect The Mountain - No Cable Car: This group has endorsed the five Greens and also Ashdown, Dutta, Posselt, Campbell and Lohberger based on their positions on the cable car and also on the Halls Saddle hub proposal. Interestingly Posselt and Lohberger could not be listed on the group's flier as they advised they were too close to their spending caps and consenting to be listed could see the flier counted towards their expenses.
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. It has now decreased to nine and it is probable that several recontesting councillors will get primary vote swings.
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. In 2022, recorded his strongest result, polling third with 0.91 quotas and was elected after the surpluses of Reynolds and Kelly. 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, at present the most, hardline pro-commerce ("blue/right") councillors on council.
Wooley, Charles - Elected to Sorell Council 2022 polling a close second on primaries with 22.4% (2.24 quotas), won Deputy Mayor ballot extremely easily with 45.6% primary in field of five. Resigned from Council late 2025 when he moved out of the area. I will familiarise myself with his voting record there soon!
Wilson, Richard - new candidate
Wan, David - Liberal candidate for Clark 2025 (647 votes)
Wallace, Susan - Labor candidate for Clark 2024 (850 votes),
Thurley, Debra Joyce - 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%. Ran for HCC in 2022 polling 270 votes (0.88%).
Templeton, Angus - minor Greens candidate for 2025 Clark polling 542 votes.
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. Re-elected on ticket with Anna Reynolds in 2022, polling 2.14% primary but overtaking incumbent Jax Fox and again being elected 11th. Elected Deputy Lord Mayor by fellow councillors after Helen Burnet was elected to state parliament in 2024. Joined Greens in 2025. Unsurprisingly has voted more strongly on the green/left side in this term of council than the previous.
Posselt, Ryan - elected 10th at first attempt after a very high effort campaign in 2022, polling 1016 votes (3.31%) and also finishing fifth in Deputy Lord Mayor race. ALP member who has generally voted on the green/left side in this term of council and is considered to be on the left of the party. Sought preselection for 2024 state election but overlooked after making comments agreeing with the Bob Brown Foundation on logging issues.
Needham, Rachel - new candidate
Murray, Graham - contested Glenorchy one-seat by-election 2024 polling 1613 votes and finishing 7th out of 11.
McShane, Jack - new candidate
Lowrie, Richard - Liberal Party candidate for Denison (state) 2006 and 2010, very narrowly missing probable election in the latter after being outlasted by Elise Archer by 61 votes in the cutup. Elected to Glenorchy council at first attempt 2007, polling 3.9% and finishing 6th after preferences (for 6 seats). Re-elected 3rd with over a quota in 2011 polling 14%, vote fell to 2% in 2014 with the larger field, other factors included not having a candidate photo in the statement booklet.
Lohberger, Ben - elected at first attempt 2022, polling 936 votes (3.05%) and finishing 12th after preferences. Although associated strongly with the Save UTAS campaign in that election, the issue has been a relatively minor one in Council voting during the term and Lohberger has generally displayed a green/left voting pattern. Contested Clark 2024 state as an independent polling 1702 votes (2.7%); vote highly concentrated in area surrounding the university.
Liu, Yang - polled 225 votes (0.73%) in 2022
Lennon, Harvey - state election candidate for Liberals for Clark 2021 polling 1488 votes.
Kelly, John - bolted onto Council at first attempt in 2022 polling 4067 votes (13.2%, 1.72 quotas) to be narrowly second behind Lord Mayor Reynolds, competitive for mayoralty but beaten by Reynolds 53.4-46.6. Contested Legislative Council seat of Hobart but easily beaten 59.7-40.3 by the Greens' Cassy O'Connor. Has generally displayed a blue/right voting pattern in his first term but more moderately so than Zucco, Coats, Elliot and Behrakis, becoming firmer later in the term.
Johnstone, Edwin - ran in 2022 polling 268 votes and finishing 28th after preferences. Clark Liberal candidate in 2025 election polling 1007 votes.
Humphries, AJ - new candidate
Hoare, Trenton - minor Greens candidate for Clark 2024 (545 votes) and Tasmania Senate 2025 (271 votes)
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. In 2022 fell to ninth on primaries with 3.9%, but re-elected. I have often assessed Harvey as a lighter shade of green than other Greens and in this term he had the least strongly green/left pattern of those in that cluster.
Elliot, Louise - Another one elected to Council for the first time in 2022 after a very big campaign, polling 1824 primaries (5.9%) and elected fifth. Joined Liberal Party in leadup to 2024 election but quit party and ran as an independent in Clark polling 1160 votes (1.8%) - most likely the Tasmanian Liberals unlike branches in other states saw her refusal to tone down the gender campaigning as a dealbreaker. Later joined the Tasmanian Nationals but unclear if that remains current and widely rumoured as a possible future One Nation candidate. Elliot is one of the more consistently blue/right councillors in my voting patterns assessment.
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. Re-elected in 2022 polling 1230 votes (4%) and elected seventh. Contested Clark 2021 (state) as an ungrouped independent polling 615 votes (0.9%). I have consistently found Dutta to land on the green/left side of council more often than not.
Dale, Jason - new candidate
Connor, Trevor - new candidate
Campbell, Sam - polled 213 votes (0.69%) in 2022. Also ran in Tas state election for Clark 2024 polling 112 votes, and Legislative Council Hobart 2024 polling 522 votes (2.7%, sixth in a field of seven in an election with Greens, Labor but no Liberal candidate)
Brumby, Cameron - new candidate
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. A much bigger campaign in 2022 and polled 6th on primaries (1473 votes, 4.8%) and was elected ninth after preferences. I overall assessed Bloomfield for this council term as not a member of any cluster but leaning to the blue/right side. However her voting patterns changed through the term from slightly green/left leaning early in the term to clearly but not especially strongly on the blue/right side towards the end of it.
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. Re-elected in seventh place in 2022 with 4.7% again. Narrowly failed initially 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. However, elected on a recount in 2023 when Elise Archer resigned, retaining his seat in 2024 but narrowly losing it in 2025 after he and Ogilvie were outpolled by Marcus Vermey and then Ogilvie was able to beat him from substantially behind on preferences. Although less conspicuously hardline in his part term on Council in 2022-3 than in the 2018-22 term was still solidly in the blue/right grouping.
Bari, Rifatul - new candidate
Ashdown, Tiffany - new candidate
Alderton, Lee - new candidate
Issues
This list is not necessarily in order and will be expanded. Many issues from the previous term continue to lurk in the background.
1. Make It Stop! - For sure plenty of good stuff has been quietly done and councillors have worked across the aisles when they've wanted to. But in this term the Council has been in the news for the wrong reasons far too much of the time. Some Councillors have been way more to blame for this than others. State government statistics show the city has been up there with Northern Midlands in terms of the most code of conduct complaints both lodged and upheld in the term, although working out the details of all the complaints is impossible given the protracted, overly secretive and sometimes silly process (a complaint can be evidence of bad behaviour, or it can be bad behaviour itself.) Many of the complaints have been either about or by Louise Elliot, who has been found guilty five times in the term (some I expect are still subject to appeal or court action) with sanctions including two suspensions and requirements to apologise or undertake training. These have mostly been over inflammatory social media comments about other councillors or on culture war issues, most notably a political attack on the Lord Mayor's parents. (Lord Mayor Reynolds was herself cautioned over an incident involving Elliot from the previous term). Also sanctioned with cautions or reprimands in this term were Marti Zucco (disruptive behaviour during a meeting), John Kelly (an outburst at Zelinda Sherlock during a meeting) and Ryan Posselt (twice, comments about Elliot during a meeting and voting when he had a conflict of interest).
Late in the term the Council has had more adverse publicity over the long-running home snacks affair in which Sherlock and at least one other person connected to her were found to have taken from the premises snacks and drinks that were available to councillors for use on council premises, claiming this to be for use while working from home. There was a lack of sufficient clarity in rules to make it clear that this wasn't allowed, and Tasmania Police have advised they won't be taking action. Such is the environment of this council that this one initially appeared to be a trivial beatup by the "blue" side, but many people's views changed after evidence of a substantial scale of disappearing supplies and the involvement of alcohol surfaced following successful FOI requests by Elliot. Sherlock has apologised but pressure to investigate further continues - and exposed further governance issues when Mike Dutta (Sherlock's father) "abstained" on several votes while remaining in the room, some of these "abstentions" being counted as votes in Sherlock's favour. (I believe this has now stopped).
One can debate whether the council's problems are caused by factionalism, have caused factionalism or are just a toxic mix of individual personalities (obviously not all of the Councillors have copped flak here). But for those looking for moderate off-council candidates as a solution to the problem - beware! Candidates who boast about how they won't fall on a side and will be above it all are probably having you on. Terms like "sensible centrist" are almost always really code for a right-winger, while someone making a big deal of how they will be "evidence based" is probably an ideological teal or green. Real centrists don't need the labels and there is a high risk at this election that what has gone on in the current term will be exploited by candidates who won't fix it.
Many members of the public have unfortunately behaved even worse in this term than the councillors themselves, with sexist and racist online abuse so common that Pulse Media apologised over moderation failures relating to comments against Reynolds. Posselt also had his twitter mentions flooded by a spectacular number of anti-trans posters who were mostly not even Australian at one stage. Sherlock and Dutta have been subject to racist abuse for many years and Bari had to hire a moderator for online material to deal with the problem.
2. The Inner City: Hobart's inner city has been one of the bigger flashpoints in this Council term, with an ongoing culture war over the balance between cars and pedestrians/cyclists, and a backdrop of long-running concern about the commercial viability of the city heart. The biggest issue here has been the Collins St bike lanes (criticised by opponents as little used and as obstructive to businesses). Another has been scramble crossings, which I find make getting through town on foot a lot easier but which continue to confuse a lot of locals. Opponents of the Collins St lanes, desperate to prove the right of politics can throw away public money too, tried to cause an elector poll on the issue in 2025 but failed, with their intended motion being voted down at the public meeting caused by their attempt, followed by not getting enough signatures in time. I covered polling related to the issue here.
3. The Housing Problem: Issues of housing affordability and availability and homelessness continue to be acute in Hobart. It is disgusting that in 2026 there are people living in often poor condition tents in several of the city's parks (most notably along the Hobart Rivulet where I suspect this is causing environmental damage) and while there are complicated causes of this nobody seems to have any real solution. Short-stay accommodation has been a flashpoint through the term, even leading to a rare display of friendly fire on the green/left side after Harvey encountered a hostile reception for "abstaining" on a motion to double rates on whole-home short-stay (which caused the motion to fail). Housing issues frequently invert the usual voting patterns on council - a development that green/left councillors would tend to reject citing impact on residents and blue/right councillors would tend to support can easily flip the script if the endpoint is affordable or social housing.
4. The Cable Car Like a demented comet the proposed kunanyi/Mt Wellington cable car appears in our skies in varying intensity and hangs over another election every four years. A long-running version of it was found critically non-compliant with legislation in the 2018-22 term but the state government's review of management of Mt Wellington is seen as breathing new potential life into the proposal, though the council would still vote to approve or reject the proposal. Here is how I see the candidates as lining up based on what I can find that they have said or how they have been evaluated by endorsing groups:
Broadly supporting cable car: Zucco, Elliot, Behrakis, Murray, Alderton, Dale, Liu, Wan, Wilson, Thurley, McShane
Broadly opposed/sceptical/cautious: all Greens (Harvey, Sherlock, Humphries, Hoare, Templeton), Kelly, Dutta, Lohberger, Posselt, Ashdown, Bari, Campbell, Connor, Needham, Wallace, Lennon
Other positions: Bloomfield (declines to give a broad yes/no response for avoidance of bias reasons but has strongly criticised previous proposal), Brumby (conditionally supportive including on discounts for Tasmanians), Johnstone (appears open to it as an option while more stressing other solutions), Lowrie (has in past supported cable car from Tolosa, current position not known), Wooley (open to supporting if not over Organ Pipes)
One factor driving the intensity of the debate is that developers generally want to build the cable car over the Organ Pipes because the vertical shift reduces the number of pylons required and the length of the journey. However this route is the most opposed for aesthetic and sense of place reasons.
Despite me classifying him in the "Broadly opposed/sceptical/cautious" category, candidate Connor has claimed this guide depicts him as pro-cable car and has accused me of misrepresenting his position.
Campaigning Issues
This section will deal with issues of campaigning that are not based on specific issues. Under construction, more will be added.
1. The First AI Election: It had to happen, and AI has been a big feature of this campaign for some candidates though maybe not as many as would have been feared. Foremost among these has been Ryan Posselt, who has very openly used AI to post a range of comments about council including some comments about patterns with motions in the previous term. AI users have come under fire because in some cases on both sides AI artwork has ripped off the work of Mercury cartoonist Chris Downes, who deserves better.
2. Productivity Claims: With the Council obviously so factionalised, some candidates have sought to portray themselves as nonetheless effective at getting lots of motions that they moved or seconded passed, including some that required working across the aisle. Lohberger in particular has used such statistics in his advertising. Posselt has also posted AI-generated success rate stats (even though they showed that Elliot has had a high number of motions passed as well as a high number defeated). These two plus Bloomfield formed an alliance for respectful debate on council though this hasn't, eg, stopped Posselt throwing shade at would be off-council intruder Wooley as a "washed-up celebrity journalist" or criticising candidates in their 60s and 70s.
3. Gender Imbalance: The election has attracted a very gender-lopsided field of 24 male, 7 women and one non-binary candidates. Three of the women are incumbents and two of the others have run for state or federal parliament before. Is it something about the current Council that makes running a turn-off for women but draws obscure Liberal men like moths to a flame, or is it just small sample size? Whatever there were some interesting reactions on social media when it turned out that a "Hobart for Her: Local decisions need local women" forum involving Ashdown, Needham and Wallace (three of the four new female candidates) was being facilitated by ... Posselt!
4. What On Earth Is This? Just when I was thinking Posselt was getting too many mentions in this section (completely unintended) and I really should start covering other candidates in it came this bizarre report of happenings at a debate.
Polling
Some early polling of Mayoral voting intention was conducted by EMRS but I have not seen the results. A second round with the actual field and a 1-2-3 ballot was conducted in September but I have also not yet seen results of this one. Any other polls will be added here.
Prospects: Lord Mayor
This is an interesting Mayoral race. There are a few candidates who are clearly just running to try to boost their profile for Councillor (although there is no longer evidence this works) but many of the candidates could be competitive. Based on the 2022 results John Kelly starts as the one to beat because he polled extremely strongly for a first attempt and would have beaten anyone but Reynolds. One question with Kelly is whether he would have lost any previous voters as awareness of how he votes on council has developed. Another is how much he is competing with Wooley for the same vote and whether Wooley might get over him.
I think the race will probably finish as a leftish candidate vs a rightish candidate. On the left side Harvey will poll more strongly in the absence of Reynolds, however some of Reynolds' voters could go first to Ashdown rather than him. It would be adventurous to predict any of the other left candidates to get over Harvey, but it's not impossible.
On the right side, I suspect at least one of Kelly or Wooley can beat Zucco and then do very well off his preferences. However if none of these does particularly well then there is a question of what Bloomfield can poll on primaries - having a more moderate image she may do well on preference flows.
Being an outsider helps Wooley (and also other prominent new candidates) because this term of council is widely, if not entirely fairly, seen as having been appalling.
You can vote in the sidebar if you have a view on who will win!
Prospects: Deputy Lord Mayor
Prior to the dreaded snackgate I would have said Zelinda Sherlock wins in this field easily (even as a Green) but I suspect it has done damage. There is just not a lot of strength on the left in this field - Lohberger was something of a surprise councillor winner last time and the issue he benefited from is lower profile now. On the right side, Behrakis and Elliot had pretty similar support last election but Behrakis has since been a state MP - which I would expect to give him the edge except that Behrakis doesn't always do too well on preference flows (as seen with him being overrun by Ogilvie, though there were some gender voting patterns involved in that). It's probably between these four; the others are newbies or have poor track records.
Prospects: Councillors
With three retirements we have nine incumbents and nine vacancies. If the nine incumbents win then the council will be 5-3-1 left-right-centre or 5-4-0 depending on how one considers Bloomfield's voting pattern. However I think the chance of all nine being re-elected is low. Behrakis and Wooley are obvious threats on the right (this could be bad news for one or more of Zucco, Bloomfield, Elliot or Kelly). Wooley's campaign (with Brad Stansfield who has worked on a few elections in his time on board) is serious and it's hard to see him not at least getting a councillor seat, whether or not he wins the top job. On the left, we have all of Dutta, Posselt, Lohberger and the two Greens Harvey and Sherlock trying to get re-elected, but although Hobart is generally a left-wing electorate I am not sure the left wins five seats here. The first three are coming off fairly low base votes from last time though they have had a term to build support, and with the reduction in seat numbers I am not certain there is enough Greens support for two seats. Among the new leftish candidates Ashdown stands out as making an early effort and also having the tealish/community independent lane pretty much to herself, so it's possible she will pick up many votes in Reynolds' absence. There are a large number of new candidates who are relative unknowns but could be competitive - this is a very strong field for new entrants without existing profile to try to break into.
It's actually not that easy to be certain any specific incumbent is safe at this election I think I can make a plausible case that anyone can lose their seat here. Probably that case is hardest to make with Kelly in view of his outstanding vote last time and also Harvey (surely the Greens will get one and could it really be Sherlock over him in the circumstances), but even so ... On the other hand there is no incumbent who stands out as obviously toast.
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 (extra links will not be added until October 1 or after), or to supply CONCISE extra bio information (which I will use, paraphrase or ignore 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, including more than once if necessary, 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.
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