Socialists gain 3.5% in council election

Issue 

Jim McIlroy, Brisbane

Socialist Alliance candidate Coral Wynter gained 3.5% (533 votes at the close of counting on polling night) in the Central ward in the March 27 Brisbane City Council election.

The Greens won 17.5% in the same inner-city ward. Greens candidate for mayor of Brisbane Drew Hutton achieved a city-wide vote of 10%.

The mayoral contest was a surprise win for Liberal candidate Campbell Newman, defeating incumbent Labor mayor Tim Quinn by 47.5% to 40.3%. Green preferences were unable to save Quinn.

However, in a topsy-turvy result, mayor-elect Newman will have to deal with a hostile ALP majority in the council. Labor appears to have won 15 council wards, with the Liberals gaining 11.

An election-night statement by the Socialist Alliance noted that the result shows the "turbulence in Australian politics at the moment. Only last month, the ALP won another landslide victory in the Queensland state election. A number of incumbent mayors lost their positions in this state-wide local council poll.

"The Socialist Alliance is pleased with the result for Coral Wynter in Central ward. The alliance had a strong presence on the polling booths on election day, following the letter-boxing of some 10,000 campaign leaflets to households in the electorate.

"The priority issues Socialist Alliance focused on included: All Brisbane City Council buses to be air-conditioned by next summer; in light of the recent scandal in which recycled rubbish was shown to be dumped with ordinary garbage by the private contractor, rubbish collection to be placed back in council hands, with full union involvement; an end to all privatisation and outsourcing of council assets and services; council to tackle affordable housing for the homeless and low-income people; support for safe heroin injecting rooms, sponsored by council; and defending the urban environment of the city.

"For a city for the millions, not the millionaires!"

From Green Left Weekly, March 31, 2004.
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