Sydney councillors quit Labor amid rate hike anger
Labor has lost majority control of Sydney’s largest council after two councillors accused their colleagues of “playing politics at an inept and dangerous level”.
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Labor has lost majority control of Sydney’s largest council after the deputy mayor and a councillor quietly resigned from the party over a proposed rate hike, accusing their party councillors of “playing politics at an inept and dangerous level”.
This masthead can reveal Blacktown City councillors Carol Israel and Bob Fitzgerald notified Labor head office of their resignations from the party in September, fuelled by concerns about a plan to increase local rates for residents and businesses, and the 2022 sale of huge swaths of council-owned land to major developer the Walker Corporation.
Blacktown City councillors Bob Fitzgerald and Carol Israel resigned from Labor.Credit: Blacktown City Council
The defections – kept secret while the party considered formal expulsion – end decades of near-uninterrupted Labor dominance in Blacktown, stripping Mayor Brad Bunting of the numbers required to guarantee Labor’s agenda in one of the city’s most significant growth corridors.
Blacktown City Council is grappling with a projected surge in its population from 400,000 to 600,000 over the next 20 years and says it cannot fund essential services and run programs the community expects with the money it gets from rates under the legislated cap.
Since August, councillors have been debating the merits of a proposed special rate variation which, if approved by the independent regulator, IPART, would force businesses and residents to pay more in council rates.
Bunting said the rise, when coupled with the standard rate increase, would result in an average rise of $3.29 a week for most households. The area’s two largest shopping centres, Westpoint Blacktown and Westfield Mount Druitt, would face a major rate rise to reduce the impact on smaller businesses.
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In November, councillors voted 8-7 against the planned increase.
In a chaotic reversal during an extraordinary meeting held last Monday, the rate hike was revived. Labor used a rescission motion to push the plan through on a voice vote, a move only possible because two Liberal councillors were absent: one was on a flight, and the other, seeking to attend the meeting remotely, was locked out because of a technical problem with a video-conferencing app.
Now-independent councillors Israel and Fitzgerald both voted against the increase, splintering from their former Labor colleagues, who supported it.
