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NSW local government elections: has western Sydney turned right?

By Fred Fuentes - posted Wednesday, 19 September 2012


In some places, such as Liverpool and Auburn, this was enough to overtake the Labor vote, but the Liberals still trailed in most of Western Sydney, such as Blacktown, Bankstown, Campbelltown, Fairfield and Penrith - although Fairfield and Penrith has no officially endorsed Liberal candidates.

Moreover, the Liberal vote fell well short of representing a majority of votes cast on the day. Forty per cent of overall votes in Liverpool were for the Liberals, 20 per cent in Auburn and less than 30 per cent in Holroyd.

Where did Labor's votes go?

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However, this is not the sole explanation. In some areas, falling Labor votes did contribute to the rise in support for the Liberals. But the results were uneven and did not take place across Western Sydney.

In Blacktown, the Liberal vote rose, but not enough to outpoll Labor. Some of the higher Liberal vote can be put down to a fall in the vote for independent candidates, but some of the growth was also due to Labor voters shifting over.

Most of this seepage seems to confirm that the Liberals have consolidated its vote among the mainly white, aspirational voters - the so-called "Howard battlers" - that have congregated in the new growth centres of outer Western Sydney, as well as the northwest where the Liberals have been strong for some time.

The Liberals' rampant attacks on refugees and the carbon price, among other policies, have helped this process along. But these votes only represented a fraction of the overall number of votes Labor lost on September 8, and accounted for almost none of the seepage away from Labor in the more migrant areas of Parramatta, Holroyd and Fairfield.

One section of Labor's votes went to informal vote, which rose as high as 10-18 per cent in migrant, working class areas such as Granville and Fairfield.

The largest block of votes, however, chose to leave Labor without going over to the Liberals.

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In Fairfield, where there was no officially endorsed Liberal candidate for mayor, Labor was safely returned. However, they lost more than 15,000 voters in the process (roughly 25 per cent of its previous vote). Sitting independent Councillor Nhan Tran scored almost double the votes of the unofficial Liberal candidate.

In the stronger Labor areas of Parramatta Council the ALP vote dropped sharply. It fell 65 per cent in the council's Arthur Phillip ward and 20 per cent in the Woodville ward. The Liberal vote stayed the same in Arthur Phillip and only rose slightly in Woodville. Instead, independent candidates of different stripes picked up some of these votes.

Another beneficiary in Arthur Phillip ward was the Greens who polled 9.3 per cent in their first campaign for Parramatta council. After preferences were distributed, the Greens candidate Phil Bradley came within three votes of winning the third councillor position for the ward which last time had gone to Labor.

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This article was originally published at Green Left Weekly on 15 September 2012.



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About the Author

Fred Fuentes is a member of the Socialist Alliance and an author for Green Left Weekly.

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All articles by Fred Fuentes

Creative Commons LicenseThis work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.

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