Who fills the seat when a local councillor goes to state parliament?

The Examiner

Examiner reporter Joe Colbrook explains what happens now that West Tamar Deputy Mayor Jess Greene and City of Launceston's George Razay have been elected to state parliament. Video by Paul Scambler

Transcript

00:00Now, I'm sure you're all aware that two Northern Tasmanian councillors, Jess Green from the

00:05West Tamar Council and George Razay from the City of Launceston, have been elected to State

00:10Parliament. You might be wondering, where does that leave us? After all, Tasmanian law

00:15is very clear on the matter. Any local councillor who is elected to another level of government

00:21has to give up their seat, meaning there are these two vacancies on these councils which

00:25have to be filled, as well as the matter of finding a new deputy mayor on the West Tamar

00:29Council to replace Miss Green. If you're anything like me and get a bit of a twitch whenever

00:34someone mentions the words elections or voting, you can rest easy. We aren't going to be sent

00:40back to the polls for a third time this year. That being said, voters will still decide Miss

00:46Green and Professor Razay's replacements when, in the coming weeks, the Electoral Commission

00:51carries out a recount. Through this process, each of the former councillors' votes from

00:57the 2022 local government elections are tallied up and distributed among the remaining eligible

01:03candidates according to preferences. I say eligible, as in Miss Green's case, a lot of

01:10her preferences went to people who went on to become councillors, and for Professor Razay,

01:16a lot of his votes ended up going to Cecily Rosol, who is also a State MP. Based on the preference

01:24flows in 2022, it's looking like Jacob Gelston, Bob Salt and Paul Spencer are all strong contenders

01:31for the Launceston recount, while Caroline Larner, Tim Moynarski and Peter Carney are all

01:36in with a shot in West Tamar. As for the deputy mayor vacancy, that'll be up to West Tamar

01:42councillors to decide, picking one from their number to see out the remainder of the council

01:46term, which ends in 2026. And then we'll all be sent back to vote.

Category

Transcript

Be the first to comment

Recommended