WA electoral commission finalises votes for local government elections

ABC NEWS (Australia)

New and returning mayors are celebrating their wins after local government elections at the weekend. As the WA Electoral Commission finalises the vote count, the state government has weighed in on key district, that's followed a trend seen in both state and federal polls this year.

Transcript

00:00Voter participation in this year's local government elections might have been lower than expected,

00:08but that hasn't dulled the excitement of incoming mayors.

00:11I'm really excited for our community.

00:13We had a lot of people that got involved with the campaign.

00:16It's always about the ratepayers, so I'm very thankful to the ratepayers of Claremont for electing me.

00:21Just a massive relief, to be honest.

00:24It kind of probably hasn't sort of hit me fully yet.

00:27For the ratepayers who voted, it was their third election this year, with some hard-fought mayoral contests.

00:34Former Councillor Peter Telford defeated Mayor of 16 Years Jock Barker in Claremont.

00:39In Joondalup, a seven-way contest came down to preferences,

00:43with Daniel Kingston overtaking former Liberal MP Ian Goodenough.

00:46In Fremantle, incumbent Hannah Fitzharding lost the mayoral race to former Councillor Ben Lorva.

00:52Mr Lorva running on policies similar to that of this year's state and federal independent candidate for Fremantle, Kate Hewlett.

01:00I think the voters of Fremantle are very smart, they're very educated,

01:03and they can really pick up on the differences between candidates.

01:06Some analysts say it's another sign.

01:09Fremantle, a once-safe Labor stronghold, is changing.

01:13One item that was common across all three campaigns, three different elections in Fremantle,

01:18was the environment, and they weren't just local environmental issues, they were much broader than that.

01:24The Orcas issue kept coming up.

01:27The Deputy Premier not happy with the result,

01:30hitting out at an attack ad on Ms Fitzharding in the local paper ahead of the election,

01:35paid for by the Maritime Union, which Mr Lorva used to work for.

01:38I'm really disappointed, to be honest, for Hannah.

01:41I've known her for many, many years, and I think she was an excellent mayor.

01:46It was a pretty negative campaign against her.

01:49Mr Lorva confirmed he did work for the union up until 2019,

01:53but said he had no knowledge of the ad and let the union know he didn't approve.

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