Junee’s Brigid Austin claims victory in council by-election

BRIGID Austin has been elected as Junee’s ninth and final councillor, after officially being declared the winner of last month’s by-election.

The lifelong Junee resident and foster carer of 11 years was officially elected with 1337 votes following the distribution of preference votes on Monday.

It comes two weeks after residents were forced to go to the polls in a by-election, after only eight people put their hands up to fill Junee Shire Council’s nine seats in September’s local government elections.

It’s the first time the town’s been forced to hold a by-election in over 20 years.

Of the more than 4,150 people who are enrolled to vote in the Junee Shire, just 3,070 or 73.5% cast their ballots, well below Junee’s typical voter turnout of between 80-85%.

A total of 3,400 ballots were returned in the 2021 local government election.

Mrs Austin maintained the largest share of formal first preference votes at 32%, or 959 votes, although still far short of the absolute majority (1,498) needed to be elected.

This required preferences to be distributed to determine a winner.

This is done by excluding the candidate with the lowest number of votes from the race and distributing their ballot papers among the remaining candidates, according to the next highest preference.

If there is still no candidate with an absolute majority, the process is repeated until a clear winner emerges.

Robert Minister, who ran as a candidate in Junee’s 2021 local government election but was unsuccessful, was first to be knocked out after securing just 3.5% of first preference votes.

He was followed by 70-year-old Allan Tucker who’d received 9.6% of the formal vote.

Local paramedic and Junee resident of six years, Peter Thompson, was the third to go, while Peter Nell was excluded in the fourth round.

Over 140 of Mr Thompson’s ballots and a further 176 ballots from Mr Nell were distributed to Mrs Austin, ultimately sealing her victory.

Shooters, Fishers and Farmers candidate Mark Vaughan remained in the race until the end, picking up a total of 992 votes, including 694 first preferences and another 298 in second preferences.

Pre-polling proved popular, with final results showing 1,839 formal votes were cast in the week leading up to election day on November 23.

A further 140 formal postal votes were received, while just 989 people voted on election day, including 869 at the Junee Recreation and Aquatic Centre and 120 at Illabo Public School.

FINAL TALLY

1. B. AUSTIN 1,337
2. M. VAUGHAN 992
3. P. NELL 683 (Excluded Round 4)
4. P. THOMPSON 445 (Excluded Round 3)
5. A. TUCKER 302 (Excluded Round 2)
6. R. MINISTER 105 (Excluded Round 1)