00:00Voter participation in this year's local government elections might have been lower than expected,
00:08but that hasn't dulled the excitement of incoming mayors.
00:11I'm really excited for our community.
00:13We had a lot of people that got involved with the campaign.
00:16It's always about the ratepayers, so I'm very thankful to the ratepayers of Claremont for electing me.
00:21Just a massive relief, to be honest.
00:24It kind of probably hasn't sort of hit me fully yet.
00:27For the ratepayers who voted, it was their third election this year, with some hard-fought mayoral contests.
00:34Former Councillor Peter Telford defeated Mayor of 16 Years Jock Barker in Claremont.
00:39In Joondalup, a seven-way contest came down to preferences,
00:43with Daniel Kingston overtaking former Liberal MP Ian Goodenough.
00:46In Fremantle, incumbent Hannah Fitzharding lost the mayoral race to former Councillor Ben Lorva.
00:52Mr Lorva running on policies similar to that of this year's state and federal independent candidate for Fremantle, Kate Hewlett.
01:00I think the voters of Fremantle are very smart, they're very educated,
01:03and they can really pick up on the differences between candidates.
01:06Some analysts say it's another sign.
01:09Fremantle, a once-safe Labor stronghold, is changing.
01:13One item that was common across all three campaigns, three different elections in Fremantle,
01:18was the environment, and they weren't just local environmental issues, they were much broader than that.
01:24The Orcas issue kept coming up.
01:27The Deputy Premier not happy with the result,
01:30hitting out at an attack ad on Ms Fitzharding in the local paper ahead of the election,
01:35paid for by the Maritime Union, which Mr Lorva used to work for.
01:38I'm really disappointed, to be honest, for Hannah.
01:41I've known her for many, many years, and I think she was an excellent mayor.
01:46It was a pretty negative campaign against her.
01:49Mr Lorva confirmed he did work for the union up until 2019,
01:53but said he had no knowledge of the ad and let the union know he didn't approve.
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