Counting Continues for Some Seats
HILLS MAYOR
Dr Michelle Byrne is the Hills Shire’s new Mayor, returning to the post she held for three years from 2017 to 2021 as the Hills Shire’s first popularly elected Mayor.
It was an emotion-packed return for the former Mayor who was shattered in November 2021 when the NSW Liberal Party head office selected Dr Peter Gangemi as its Liberal candidate for Mayor ahead of her following a bitter factional dispute which saw local Liberal party branches blocked from taking part in the selection process.
Hills Liberal party members voted in the 2024 selection process in August this year with Dr Bryne winning the Liberal pre-selection by 149 votes to Dr Gangemi’s 134 votes.
Dr Byrne returns after 13 years on council, with a total of seven years as Mayor. When she stepped down after the election in December 2021 she said in a statement on social media: “Despite no longer being on Council past December I will continue to actively serve the community through my continued involvement with numerous community groups – in fact I may now have more time to spend working on community-based projects!
“This is not the last time the community will see Michelle Byrne in Public Office.
I intend to return bigger, better and fiercer than ever to fight for the community I love so much.”
On Saturday (14th December) Voters had the choice of three candidates as Mayor, Dr Byrne (Liberal) Dr Mila Kasby (The Greens) and Immanuel Selvaraj (Labor). Of the 94,955 votes counted by Wednesday evening Dr Byrne had 59,559 votes (62.39%), Dr Kasby had 18,030 (18.89%) and Mr Selvaraj 17,866 (18.72%).
The count for the 12 councillors to Hills Shire Council are still continuing.
Each of the four wards will be represented by three councillors. The initial counts so far have all three seats in two wards decided and two seats decided in the other two wards. The Labor and The Greens candidates in East and North Wards are waiting for the postal votes to come in to find out who gets the final seat.
In East Ward after 33,220 people voted 372 votes separated Labor’s Jane Grevtseva ahead of The Greens Suzannah McDonald. In North Ward the contest is even closer with Labor’s Dilvan Bircan ahead of Greens candidate and former councillor Mila Kasby by 98 votes in an electorate with 34,243 voters.
Already elected are:
• CENTRAL: Reena Jethi (Lib), Jerome Cox (Lib) Tina Cartwright (Labor)
• WEST: Frank De Masi (Lib) Rosemarie Boneham (Lib) Immanuel Selvaraj (Lab)
• EAST: Samuel Uno (Lib) Alan Haselden (Lib) with the third seat still to be decided.
• NORTH: Mitchell Blue (Lib) Jacob Jackson (Lib) with the third seat still to be decided.
All eight Liberal councillors have been on Hills Shire Council before. Four have just served for four years and the other four are returning after a four year break. The Labor councillors are new to council.
Dr Byrne told the Hills to Hawkesbury Community News: “ I am completely overwhelmed and very grateful for the support the community has given me.
“I look forward to hitting the ground running and working as hard as I can for all residents across the Hills.
Top priorities include:
• Pushing back on the NSW Government’s plan to double the housing targets for the Hills as well as the TOD (Transport Orientated Development) precinct plan for 21,000 dwellings between Bella Vista and Kellyville metro stations and ensuring we have the right levels of development that can be supported with infrastructure, jobs, public amenities and open space.
• Advocate for our share of State and Federal funding to deliver critical infrastructure including road upgrades, footpaths, cycleways, open space, sporting fields, community amenities etc to support our growing community.
• Keeping rates and waste charges as low as possible whilst making the Hills the most business friendly council in the region.
At the moment Hills Shire Council has its special meeting to welcome the new council and install the new Mayor down for Tuesday October 1st.
The first General council meeting of The Hills Shire Council will be on Tuesday, October 8th.
With 10 groups and a total of 62 candidates vying for the 12 seats on Hawkesbury City Council counting was bound to be a long process.
Unlike The Hills Shire Council where only 1 Independent candidate stood, in Hawkesbury five groups of Independents stood against Liberal, Labor, The Greens, Shooters, Fishers and Farmers and The Small Business Party.
After the initial count after Saturday’s election, 9 of the 12 seats up for election had been decided on quotas with the Liberals gaining the lion’s share of these.
The Liberals have three seats assured with former Hawkesbury Mayor Sarah McMahon joined by Mike Creed and veteran councillor Jill Reardon. Paul Veigel who was elected on the last council is still waiting to see if the Liberals Group I above the line will get enough in postal votes for him to claim the fourth seat on quota for the Liberals but it looks likely.
The first preference votes also saw: Greens candidate Danielle Wheeler, Independent candidate Mary Lyons-Bucket, Labor’s Amanda Kotlash, Shane Djuric from the Shooters, Fishers and Farmers Party, Independent Nathan Zamprogno and Eddie Dogramaci from The Small Business Party all re-elected to Hawkesbury City Council.
Counting of Votes will continue during the week. With 31,164 votes counted on Saturday there is still 20% of the vote to be counted including below line the votes.
By Wednesday evening the top votes vying for last 3 seats to be decided were:
• Liberals: 9,096 votes
• Shooters, Fishers and Farmers: 3,751
• Labor: 3,605
• IND (Mary Lyons-Bucket team) 3, 593
• IND (Nathan Zamprogno team) 3,540 The count cannot be concluded until all postal votes have been returned to the Electoral Commissioner. The deadline for return of completed postal votes is 6pm on Friday, 27th September 2024.
When all the votes have been counted, the official announcement of the election result will be declared in writing. Results will be declared between 1 and 3 October 2024.
The first meeting of Hawkesbury City Council, when the new Mayor and Deputy Mayor will be elected by councillors, will be held on Tuesday October 15th.
THANK YOU
In a post on Facebook former Hawkesbury Mayor Sarah McMahon thanked people for voting for the Liberal team in the Hawkesbury Local Government Elections.
“I will continue to work hard and serve the people of the Hawkesbury over the following 4 year term diligently, with compassion, and in a manner that prioritises civic duty as a core pillar of my responsibilities.
“I hope that the makeup of the next Council Chamber looks at this term as an opportunity to hit the ‘re-set’ button, both on how we treat each other and how we communicate our varying policy stances to the community in a professional manner.”
FAREWELL NOTE
Hills Mayor Dr Peter Gangemi spoke to the Hills to Hawkesbury Community News on Wednesday, before the official declaration of the poll, and said: “I would like to thank everyone in The Hills for their support during my three years as Mayor and my 12 years on Council.
“As the Mayor, I was proud to lead a Council that delivered a record amount of recreational projects, record amount of road rehabilitation projects and record support for community groups, as well as increased assistance for our business, rural and multicultural communities.
“It was the greatest honour to work as hard as I could for our shire and I look forward to continuing to help our residents and community groups in The Hills however I can into the future.”
