Pooley's faustian deal with the ALP Right's money men

In the midst of all the electricity privatisation blood letting and bad manners at the ALP's State Conference there was some political knife wielding in the City of Sydney's corner as current ALP Councilor Tony Pooley convincingly dispatched Labor's left wing Lord Mayoral aspirant and former MP Dr Meredith Burgmann.

In today's SMH a victorious Pooley proclaims he will not take donations from developers or the hotel industry... but by gaining the support of the discredited Right wing Sussex Street machine to defeat the ALP Left, Pooley has already made his faustian deal with the money men and unions of Sussex Street that the Right will no doubt call in.

When is the Clover Moore party preselection?

As Tony Pooley (ALP), Chris Harris (Greens) and I traverse our respective public party processes for preselection and endorsement to run as Lord Mayoral candidates - observers wonder what preselection processes the Clover Moore Party (yes it is now a registered political party and brand name) is undertaking. In Council last year the Lord Mayor promised to provide a copy of her new political party's constitution (as required by the Act) but we are still waiting. Word has it that all Moore Councillors have been re-endorsed to run again under the Moore Party banner. eCouncillor must have missed the Moore party advertisements, missed the party conference and missed the rank and file ballots around the Moore household kitchen table.


Deputy mayor fends off rival for top job

Jano Gibson and Sunanda Creagh May 6, 2008

THE field of hopefuls for Sydney's top job has narrowed after one of the most prominent contenders, Meredith Burgmann, failed to win Labor Party support for her run at the lord mayorship.
Labor's difficult task of toppling the Lord Mayor, Clover Moore, in September's local government elections has instead been given to the Deputy Lord Mayor, Tony Pooley.
Cr Pooley, a former mayor of South Sydney, defeated the former NSW Upper House president in a vote at last weekend's ALP state conference.
Dr Burgmann, from Labor's Left faction, said she had expected to lose after Cr Pooley, who does not belong to either faction, received endorsement from the Right several weeks ago.
She said she stayed in the race to highlight her concerns about Cr Moore being the Lord Mayor and the Member for Sydney at the same time. "I wanted to make a point about Clover's arrogance about thinking Lord Mayor of Sydney was a part-time job."
Defeating Cr Moore would be a "tough battle", said Dr Burgmann, who is now considering running as a candidate for Labor councillor.
"Clover has the advantage of incumbency and the huge multimedia machine that cranks out material with her face on it once a week," she said. "[And] at the moment the State Government is pretty unpopular and that will count against us too."
Cr Pooley said he was pleased with the result.
"It was a hard slog; it's a lot of delegates to contact. I went across the board and spoke to every major union secretary from across both factions. I contacted everyone I could, regardless of whether they were Left or Right.
"Of course, 333 of them did support Meredith but I think [I won support because] I have had eight years of involvement in local government."
He promised not to take donations from developers or the hotel industry to fund his bid. "However, I do have two friends who manage pubs who I will be inviting to a fund-raiser as friends," he said. He refused to name the pubs.
He said he would have preferred the preselection to have been made through a ballot of rank-and-file branches, but suggested the outcome would be the same regardless.
Councillors Chris Harris (Greens) and Shayne Mallard (Liberal) have said they are also keen to run for the top job.