Good, bad and the ugly of 2024 council elections

The dust has settled since we all trudged to our nearest voting place on September 14 to elect a new council.

It’s true that the NSW Electoral Commission is still counting votes, including postals, but it’s unlikely the results will change by the time the poll is formally declared on October 3.

In the meantime, we have decided to dedicate this instalment of Macarthur Chatter at some of the good, bad and ugly sides of democracy.

We start with the good, courtesy of legal eagle Patrick Duffy, and something that is becoming a tradition: a photo of all the volunteers united in the service of our democracy. (That’s our correspondent right in the centre of the picture, red shirt and all.)

Or as Patrick puts it: “Here’s my now traditional ‘we might disagree about things, but we are all one people’ photo from Ruse.

“Funnily enough I worked pre poll Thursday night and whilst Adam Zara and I disagree on almost everything (not least of which is whether candidates should wear a hoody whilst handing out on the booth) we discovered we share the same birthday albeit exactly a decade apart. More unites us than divides,’’ wrote Patrick, and we can only applaud words that reflect how most of us want to be: united with everyone else.

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That was the good. Now for the bad: On the day before the main election day, there were howls of outrage over the handing out of how to vote cards that had not been registered.

The allegations were about one of the groups above the line in Campbelltown, and a formal complaint was lodged with the Electoral Commission.

And that’s where we will leave this aspect of the election, because all that can happen if the allegation is found to be true is for a fine to be issued.

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And finally, the ugly. Yes, unfortunately that was the case at one of the pre-poll booths.

As reported to us, poor old voters were swamped by a how-to-vote cards scrum the minute they appeared within site of the door.

It was not a good look for democracy and let’s hope that next election that kind of behaviour is somehow prevented from occurring.

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While we know who has been elected to council, we won’t know who will be mayor until after the October 3 declaration.

But we do know that Campbelltown went green this election, in a clear vote for a check on more development.

Or as one of our readers put it: “a great step for ensuring the protection of our environment.’’

He also had some sage views about the potential next mayor, Darcy Lound, whose Labor party won six seats on council.

“Darcy is a great bloke, however not sure how he will be in that Mayor’s seat,’’ he writes.

“I was happy to see that the Community First Independent seem to have gotten three elected and really put the independents on the map.

“Funnily enough, I was at a local shop the other day and the owner was saying, looks like it might be the ‘Major Party Mayor Lound versus the Peoples Mayor Cotter’ because of the sheer amount of votes the independent party got.

 “All I hope in my old age is that we have some good representation for Campbelltown and some new faces.’’

Hear, hear.