She's the accidental councillor who never expected to win. A teenager from Western Sydney has become one of the youngest people to be elected to council after the liberal party failed to nominate any candidates to run against her in tomorrow's local government elections in New South Wales. But Libby Austin is not the only candidate who has been given an unexpected boost from the liberal party's nominations debacle.
Category
📺
TVTranscript
00:0019-year-old Libby Austin's name isn't on the how-to-vote cards she's handing out.
00:07She's already won a spot on Penrith Local Council without a single vote being cast.
00:12It is just a crazy experience.
00:15I am so excited because, you know, one day maybe I hope that I might get the chance to.
00:20But now it gets to happen now and I guess I'm just, I can't wait for it to begin.
00:23The first year uni student put up her hand as a ballot filler for what was supposed to
00:27be the unwinnable fifth spot on Labor's ticket for East Ward.
00:31But after the Liberal Party failed to nominate any candidates to run against her, she's been
00:36automatically elected.
00:37Oh I am very nervous.
00:39I'm very nervous.
00:40You know, I'm 19, I'm going into this very, very, you know, exciting adventure.
00:44It's an amazing opportunity and there's a lot of, you know, responsibility being the
00:48youngest on council to represent everybody in the community.
00:51Proving age really is no barrier, one of the other people elected on the same Labor ticket
00:55is 84-year-old life member Edmund Mifsud.
00:58Edmund Mifsud and Libby Austin are just some of the councillors who've been elected unopposed
01:03in 14 local government areas across the state because the Liberal Party's failure to nominate
01:08in time meant there weren't enough candidates for the New South Wales Electoral Commission
01:12to be able to hold a vote in those areas.
01:15While the nominations fiasco ended the political hopes of many would-be candidates, it's been
01:20a gift for at least one former Liberal.
01:23Lane Cove Mayor Scott Benison quit the party after losing his pre-selection and nominated
01:27as an Independent.
01:28Yes, I dodged a bullet and I got my forms in on time so here I am.
01:32He says with no Liberals running in Lane Cove and the Northern Beaches, Saturday's unpredictable
01:37results could make for a motley crew of councillors and dysfunctional councils.
01:42It is a nightmare for councils all around New South Wales because suddenly the politics
01:46will shift and the residents may not get what they want because of Liberals failing to get
01:52their forms in.
01:53A failure that's led to elections unlike any we've seen before.