New South Wales Council Elections, 4 December 2021

Floods, drought, wildfires, Covid-19  

From July 2019 to March 2020, Australia experienced a severe bushfire event. An extended period of heatwaves over much of Australia began in early December 2018 and continued in January 2019 – which went on to be the country’s driest and hottest year on record, with rainfall values in New South Wales (NSW) and southern Queensland were near or below previous record lows. More than 24 million hectares of land across Australia was affected, directly causing 33 deaths and almost 450 more deaths as a result of smoke inhalation. Over 3,000 homes were destroyed (Filkov et al. 2020; Cook et al. 2021). 

Following the 2019–2020 bushfires, the Australian Bureau of Meteorology’s State of the Climate report blamed carbon emissions for the increase in extreme heat. Australia’s climate is expected to become still hotter and drier in future, increasing the risk of drought and extreme weather events like bushfires (Al Jazeera 2020). 

As a response to the Covid-19 pandemic, in March 2020 Australia declared a human biosecurity emergency and placed a travel ban on all non-residents and non-Australian citizens entering the country (Maclean and Elphick 2020). In addition, Australia placed restrictions and lockdowns on movement and association to control the spread of the virus (Australian Human Rights Commission 2021).  

November 2021 was the wettest November for NSW, which contributed to substantial flooding, particularly in inland NSW. Flood warnings given during the two-week voting period covered areas of the State bordering Queensland and Victoria (NSW Electoral Commission 2022). 

Impact on the electoral process  

While New South Wales had originally planned to hold its Council elections on 12 September 2020, these were postponed for over a year due to the combined impacts of drought, bushfires and the Covid-19 pandemic – to allow councils more time to prepare and deal meanwhile with the multiple crises (National Tribune 2020). After consultation and advice from the NSW Electoral Commission and NSW Health, the elections were further postponed from 4 September to 4 December 2021 due to the pandemic (NSW Electoral Commission 2022). In total, the election was postponed for 447 days.  

On election day, floods impacted 12 local government areas in NSW. The floods caused road closures, limiting movement in and around some jurisdictions. Some election venues were closed or moved due to the flooding, with affected voters directed to other voting channels. In some councils, such as Narrabri, additional staff were recruited from within the town’s flood defences as it had become cut off by floodwaters – thus allowing the election venue to open for all days of early voting (NSW Electoral Commission 2022). 

The voter turnout in NSW for the was 83.56 per cent, which was higher than the turnout in 2017 at 80.28 per cent (NSW Electoral Commission 2022).