Mayor: Hunter Ward to decide election

Waverley Mayor John Wakefield has declared Hunter Ward as the decisive electoral battefield as the contest for majority in Council heats up.

Having only won 10 per cent of the vote in Hunter at the 2008 election, Labor have drafted in experienced former State politician and once Waverley Mayor Paul Pearce to challenge Hunter Independent Councillor Miriam Guttman-Jones.

“It will be decided on a few hundred votes in Hunter Ward,” Mr Wakefield said. “They will determine the outcome and their residents need to be conscious of it.

“If you think about the ballot that is coming up, Bondi Ward has four teams running of which three councillors will get up … Waverley has three teams running … Lawson has three teams running. One [Labor], one [Liberal], one [Greens] is a standard outcome.”

“That means whoever gets the final position in Hunter will decide the outcome. Anyone involved in Waverley politics knows that is the case.”

Council is currently split in two with the Labor-Greens holding a tenuous 6-5 majority over the Liberal-Independent coalition. Liberal dominated the Hunter Ward vote four years ago, winning two positions of Council in addition to the seat of Ms Guttman-Jones, who has traditionally sided with Liberal.

Liberal Councillor and Mayoral candidate, Sally Betts said Mr Pearce was no chance at winning a Council seat from the Vaucluse-based Ward.

“That is absolute rubbish,” Ms Betts said. “The fact is four years ago no Labor candidate could even get 25 per cent of the vote in their own ward. No Labor candidate got a quota, not one.

“No Labor person has put their toe into Hunter Ward in the last four years. What makes Paul Pearce think that he could possibly win a seat?”

Liberal Councillor Leon Goltsman dominated the vote at last year’s Hunter Ward byelection, winning a 76.1 per cent majority. The resounding victory underscores the scale of the proposition facing Mr Pearce at the September 8 ballot.

“Thirty per cent of the people in Hunter Ward actually vote Labor or Green,” Mr Pearce said. “We have this unfortunate situation where basically a third of the electorate is unrepresented so I’ve put my hand up.”

Mr Pearce was a member of the NSW Legislative Assembly between 2003 and 2011, representing Coogee.

“The reason I’ve put my hand up is partly because I’ve got the best chance of picking up the votes,” he said. “The other side of the coin is that it’s out of the Coogee electorate so there’s no suggestion that I’m making a comeback. I’m genuinely running to get on Council because I think Liberal have stuffed the place up.”