NEWCASTLE Greens councillors Michael Osborne and Therese Doyle have added their names to a growing list of candidates seeking preselection for the state government seats of Newcastle and Charlestown.
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Byelections for the two seats will be held on Saturday, October 25, after the sitting Liberal members Tim Owen and Andrew Cornwell resigned earlier this month, admitting to accepting illegal donations in the lead-up to the 2011 state elections.
Labor's Tim Crakanthorp (a Newcastle councillor) and Jodie Harrison (Lake Macquarie mayor) will run for the seats of Newcastle and Charlestown respectively and are permitted to hold their council seats until the next local government election in 2016.
Clive Palmer's Palmer United Party (PUP) is also canvassing candidates it would endorse in the seats, despite not being registered. PUP's 2013 federal election candidate Bronwyn Reid could possibly stand in Charlestown, but would have to run as an independent, endorsed by the Palmer party.
The lord mayoral election for Newcastle is due to be held on or before Saturday, November 15, following the resignation of Jeff McCloy.
Labor councillor and likely lord mayoral candidate Nuatali Nelmes has asked Newcastle council for the NSW Electoral Commission to run the lord mayoral vote on the same day as the state election, unhappy with the way the privately-owned Australian Election Company ran the poll in 2012.
Premier's promenade in Newcastle
NSW Premier Mike Baird was in Newcastle's Hunter Street Mall last Tuesday.
He again offered his apologies to the region for the actions of the Liberal Party and its local MPs after evidence of alleged corruption was presented in the Independent Commission Against Corruption.
Mr Baird also reiterated that the Liberal Party would not contest the seats of Newcastle and Charlestown in the byelection, but would contest the seats next March.
