1983 New South Wales local elections

1983 New South Wales local elections

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1984 (deferred) →

The 1983 New South Wales local elections were held on 24 September 1983 to elect the councils of the local government areas (LGAs) of New South Wales, Australia.^[3][4][5]

A number of councils had their electoral structures altered prior to the 1983 elections. Bogan was reduced from ten to nine,^[6] Tumut was reduced from ten to eight,^[7] Warren increased from ten to twelve^[8] and Wellington increased from ten to eleven.^[9]

Gloucester, Kyogle, Murray, Murrumbidgee and Tallaganda were all increased from eight to nine councillors.^{[10][11][12][13][14]}

In August 1983, local government minister Lin Gordon announced that elections for 13 councils would be postponed until 10 December 1983 while possible amalgamations were considered.^[15] The City of Sydney and the municipalities of Ashfield, Botany, Burwood, Canterbury, Concord, Drummoyne, Leichhardt, Marrickville, Randwick, Strathfield, Waverley and Woollahra were all affected.^[15]

A number of these councils appear to have eventually gone ahead with elections as planned on 24 September.^[16][17] However, Ashfield, Canterbury, Leichhardt and Sydney did not, with their elections moved to 14 April 1984.^{[18][19][20][21]}

The Liberal Party, which contested a number of LGAs for the first time, had a swing towards them.^[16] In Wollongong, one member of the Active Community Team (ACT) was elected, while A Women in Local Government (WILGO) was unsuccessful.^[16]

In Blue Mountains, the Communist Party of Australia unsuccessfully contested Ward 1 and Ward 4, receiving 1.91% and 1.94% of the vote respectively.^[16][22]

Ted Mack was re-elected as mayor of North Sydney with 70% of the vote.^[16]

At least one referendum was held.