Liberals poised to take on unfinished business

The September 8 Waverley Council elections resulted in an overwhelming majority for the Liberal Party, amassing 53 per cent of the total vote.

The signs all point to Sally Betts returning to her formerly held Mayoral posting, set to be determined at a separate election on September 27. Liberal Councillor, Tony Kay said it was too early to claim victory with the Mayoral ballot still to be decided, but was hopeful Bill Mouroukas would be elected from Waverley Ward.

“It depends on preferences, it depends on a lot of things,” he said. “It’s not just the primary voting at this stage; it’s also whether the preferences go from the Greens to Labor, and if they do, then how many?”

The Liberals returned a swing of eight per cent, more than twice the amount of votes gained by the Labor and Greens parties. The Party is looking to build on momentum as it seeks to promote financial sustainability and solutions to parking and urban infrastructure.

“It’s about the change, the leadership and a bit of financial rigour around managing the finances of Council,” Gabrielle Upton said, the State member for Vaucluse. Councillor Betts, a representative of Hunter Ward, was beaming with praise for the hard work and commitment demonstrated by her team.

“For the last six months we have done street stalls in Bondi Junction, our candidate brochure went out three months ago, we did a postal vote application, we did our Axiom magazine [and] we sent out the ‘How to Vote’ ad to every resident, as well as a final flier.

“We really worked hard and did everything. If the result is proportionate to the effort that was put in, we should really have a landslide.”

Councillor Leon Goltsman of Hunter Ward said the Liberals’ campaign was enhanced by the guidance and leadership of Ms Betts. “If the results prove to be favourable for us, then the real winners are the community members,” he said. “We’ve been very fortunate to have a good team leader, Sally. She brings out the best in people and this lady has certainly brought out the best in us.”

This year’s ballot saw the election of two Liberal candidates in Lawson Ward, Angela Burrill and Andrew Cusack – a historic feat unprecedented in Waverley. With a total of 3,476 from 6,547 formal votes cast, Liberal attained 53 per cent of the Lawson vote with a quota of 2.12.

“We are thrilled about having two Liberal councillors in Lawson Ward,” Ms Burrill said. “It’s an exciting opportunity for us to achieve real change. We have listened to the concerns of the residents and found out specifically the things that … [the local community] want to see changed.”

Rose Bay resident Yosi Tal hopes the newly-elected councillors will respond to community concerns.

“Ordinary people want to be heard and responded to. I think that the biggest problem today is that a lot of people … aren’t being represented properly,” he said. “We need a refresher … new people in there who can relate to the ideas differently.”

Mr Goltsman said engagement with the community is what set Liberal apart. He was confident of victory ever since the Council meeting on September 4.

“Labor seemed a little nervous,” he said. “It reminded me of the old saying about Musashi [and] the samurai who told his foe: ‘You know you’ve lost now because when you retrieved your sword, you threw away your sheath, knowing that the sword wasn’t going back in’.”

But Mr Goltsman said the Liberals needed to be wary of complacency and there was still more work needed to be done.

“I felt the same way when I left all my things in my [Council] drawer … I knew I had to come back as we’ve got unfinished business to take care of.”

By Daniel Paperny