Sydney Council elections - four years on and Clover wants more

“I think the work we’ve done over the last 18 months, which has been the most comprehensive consultation ever undertaken by the city for our Sustainable Sydney 2030 plan, will guide the work we’ll do for the city,” Cr Moore said.

“When we were elected we inherited council areas that had been crashed together by the government for political reasons...so it was a huge challenge to bring all of that together and to create the culture we really want for the city, which is about inclusiveness, it’s about consultation. That was a very different city to the one that I was elected to.”

She listed greening initiatives such as tree plantings and new parks among her proudest achievements while Lord Mayor, along with the upgrades of Redfern and Oxford Streets and Glebe Point Road, as well as new facilities like the Ian Thorpe Aquatic Centre and the Glebe Foreshore Walk.

Environmental programs such as Sustainable Sydney 2030, Live Green, car share and cycling programs were also a key part of her tenure as Lord Mayor, as have programs to help local businesses.

“The environment wasn’t even on the radar when we came in and now it’s the main driver of what we do,” she said. “Sustainable Sydney 2030 really has as its focus the environment, but it’s also about the economic, cultural and social sustainability of the city so they’re the drivers, and they sort of cover all the things that we do.”

The Lord Mayor said she was surprised by recent comments by some councillors about the content of 2030, with Greens councillor Chris Harris describing the plan as “an election manifest for the Lord Mayor”.

“The Greens are meant to be about our environment and the driver of 2030 is the environment and sustainability and the future of our planet, and this was something that council unanimously endorsed in 2006,” she said.

Alongside the election in September, residents will also be voting in a referendum on wards in the city.

Cr Moore dismissed suggestions she would not do as well in a wards-based election.

“The mayor is popularly elected anyway, so it would make no difference, and as my team comes from across the city I don’t believe that would make any difference too,” she said.

“I don’t believe the question of wards should be just about political opportunities . . . it should be about the best interests of Sydney.”

Cr Moore said she believed her council role complimented her job as an MP.

“It’s probably made that work [in parliament] even more effective.”

Source: Central 06.08.2008