2024 Melbourne City Council election
Australian local government election From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Australian local government election From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The 2024 Melbourne City Council election will be held in October 2024 to elect nine councillors and a leadership team (consisting of a lord mayor and deputy lord mayor) to the City of Melbourne. The election will be held as part of the statewide local government elections in Victoria, Australia.[1]
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On 24 June 2022, Bring Back Melbourne councillor Philip Le Liu left the Liberal Party to join the Victorians Party and contest the 2022 Victorian state election.[2] However, the party disbanded on 13 August 2022 before the election was held.[3][4]
In March 2022, Greens councillor Rohan Leppert made comments in a private Facebook group about the Andrews state government's gay conversion therapy laws.[5] After the comments were leaked, some Greens members labelled him transphobic and called for him to be expelled from the party.[6]
On 6 April 2022, the Victorian Greens released a statement "in light of recent commentary by Leppert", saying the party "reject[s] any suggestion that trans rights should be up for debate".[7][8] Leppert described the party's statement as "highly tendentious and false".[9]
Leppert chose in March 2024 not to seek re-election after three terms as a councillor.[10]
On 28 March 2024, then-Lord Mayor Sally Capp announced that she would resign before the re-election.[11] She resigned as Lord Mayor on 1 July 2024, and was replaced by Deputy Lord Mayor Nicholas Reece.[12][13]
Like in state and federal elections, the leadership team election uses full preferential voting.[14]
For the councillor election, group voting tickets (GVT) are used − a group registers a GVT before an election, and when a voter selects a group above-the-line on the ballot paper, their vote is distributed according to the registered GVT for that group.[15] Alternatively, a voter can number all boxes for individual candidates below-the-line.[14]
Individual candidates are not able to contest both the leadership team election and the councillor election.[16] This means that even if a group's leadership team candidates are unsuccessful, members of their councillor ticket can still be elected.[16]
Businesses are given two votes in Melbourne City Council elections, the only LGA in Victoria where this is the case.[16] Property investors and business owners do not have to be Australian citizens to vote.[16][17]
At the 2020 election, the Melbourne City Council electoral roll was composed of 55.1% business and out-of-the-area property owners, with local residents making up the remaining 44.9%.[16]
A similar electoral system in New South Wales applied for Sydney City Council, where businesses also had two votes.[18] This was abolished in 2023 ahead of the 2024 NSW local government elections.[19][20]
The Labor Party officially launched their campaign on 28 August 2024, with Phil Reed as their lord mayoral candidate for the second election in a row and Virginia Wills as the deputy candidate.[21]
On 8 September 2024, Reece announced he wanted Melbourne City Council to sell its 51% share of the Regent Theatre if he was re-elected.[22] An urgent motion at a council meeting was tabled by Councillor Jamal Hakim noting that council has "no intention or policy basis to sell the Regent theatre" was passed several days later with six votes in favour.[23]
The proposal to sell Regent Theatre has been opposed by Team Wood, Team Hakim and Labor.[24][25]
After being sworn in as Lord Mayor of Melbourne, Reece confirmed he would seek re-election, although he would not be running as an endorsed Labor Party candidate.[26] He announced incumbent councillor Roshena Campbell, a Liberal Party member, as his running mate on 28 July.[27]
The Victorian Liberal Party endorsed leadership team candidates for the first time in the party's history.[28]
In February 2024, former senator Derryn Hinch announced he would run for Lord Mayor of Melbourne. However, one month later he withdrew, citing the costs of running a campaign.[29]
Councillor Jamal Hakim announced his intention to run for Lord Mayor on Friday 2 August on a vision for Melbourne as a democratic, welcoming and flourishing city. Hakim announced a transparency and anti-corruption platform to start his campaign. He announced his deputy running mate as Esther Anatolitis, co-chair of the Australian Republican movement.
| Party | Candidates | Background | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Team Nick Reece | Nicholas Reece | Lord Mayor since 2024 | |
| Roshena Campbell | Councillor since 2020 | ||
| Labor | Phil Reed | 2020 Labor lord mayoral candidate | |
| Virginia Wills | |||
| Liberal | Mariam Riza | ||
| Luke Martin | |||
| Greens | Roxane Ingleton | [30] | |
| Marley McRae McLeod | |||
| Team Arron Wood | Arron Wood | 2020 lord mayoral candidate | |
| Erin Deering | Entrepreneur and fashion designer[31] | ||
| Team Hakim | Jamal Hakim | Resident Independent and Councillor since 2020 | |
| Esther Anatolitis | Resident Independent and Co-chair of the Australian Republic Movement[32] | ||
| Independent | Anthony Koutoufides | Former Carlton AFL player | |
| Intaj Khan | Developer | ||
| Animal Justice | Eylem Kim | ||
| Bruce Poon | |||
| Independent | Gary Morgan | Pollster and perennial candidate[33] | |
Incumbent councillors are highlighted in bold text.[2]
| Greens |
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