by Shane Sody

Being known as a strong supporter of your Adelaide Park Lands is a proven vote-winner within the City of Adelaide.

As we’ve previously noted, Adelaide residents will vote for candidates who prioritise protecting your Park Lands:

In recent weeks, voters in the City Council’s Central Ward had a huge field of 19 candidates to choose from, to fill four Council vacancies at a supplementary election.

We sent a questionnaire to all 19 candidates and published the results on 31 July, recommending five of the 19 - none of whom were members of a political party.

We’re pleased to report that three of our five recommended candidates have been successfully elected to represent Central Ward, until the next Council-wide election, due in November 2026.

Congratulations to returning Councillor Carmel Noon (elected 1st), Patrick Maher (elected 2nd), and Eleanor Freeman (elected 4th). We also acknowledge the successful election of Liberal Party member Alfredo Cabada.

Our commiserations to Anne Moran and Ben Ayris who were also recommended but missed out.

Newly elected Councillors, from left: (Carmel Noon (re-elected), Patrick Maher, Alfredo Cabada, and Eleanor Freeman.

Read our questions to all 19 candidates, and their responses:

“Who to vote for in Central Ward?” (31 July 2025)

Lessons for the State Government

This City Council supplementary election result might be a wakeup call to SA Labor.

The two candidates who were Labor Party members, Declan Price-Brooks, and former Councillor David Elliott, both missed out.

SA Labor went to the State election in March 2022 promising to protect your tree canopy, and not to destroy your heritage. Yet their actions since have been the opposite, with several massive Park Lands attacks.

SA Labor's Lucy Hood won the marginal seat of Adelaide in 2022 after speaking up about the need to "value and protect" natural and built heritage, but her record since then has been as an apologist for the State Government's ongoing campaign of Park Lands attacks.

This election result comes at a crucial time for the State Government as it prepares to implement a hostile takeover of Possum Park /Pirltawardli (Park 1) and John E. Brown Park (Park 27A) to convert these Parks into a profit-driven golf business at the expense of innumerable trees and biodiversity.

What will be the electoral consequences at the State election in March 2026?

Ms Hood, and Planning Minister Nick Champion have been invited to put the Government’s case at the “Stop the Chop” community forum on Sunday 21 September.