This was published 4 months ago
LNP’s Adrian Schrinner returned as Brisbane’s lord mayor
Lord Mayor Adrian Schrinner says he is “humbled” Brisbane residents have re-elected him for another four-year term.
Schrinner defeated Labor’s Tracey Price and the Greens’ Jonathan Sriranganathan in the mayoral race, although neither officially conceded defeat on Saturday night.
Brisbane Lord Mayor Adrian Schrinner arrives at the LNP’s election night function after being re-elected for another four years.Credit: Felicity Caldwell
“I am humbled residents have chosen me to continue as lord mayor so my team and I can continue to keep Brisbane moving forward,” Schrinner said in a statement.
As attention turned to the wards, and whether the Greens would pick up extra seats, Schrinner used his statement to criticise how election day was run.
“While we expect to retain a majority in council, unfortunately many wards remain either too close to call or not enough votes have been counted,” Schrinner said on Saturday night.
“Like me, I am sure many residents are disappointed at the slow count as well as the long queues and shortage of staff and ballot papers that occurred at many booths.
“The Electoral Commission of Queensland’s performance will need to be further considered once the counting is finished.”
The LNP was ahead in 17 wards, Labor ahead in five, and the Greens ahead in three, with the minor party set to pick up Paddington and add to its numbers in City Hall.
Just after 9pm, Sriranganathan spoke to Greens party faithful, telling them he did not “really care” about the result of the mayoral race.
“I’m not even going to look at what the swing is or how many votes we ended up winning,” he said.
“When I put my hand up to run, it was to support the people behind me [the Greens candidates] and to help us get a few more seats here in this council chamber.”
At the Greens’ party in Milton, the former councillor said his campaign was not about becoming mayor, but about growing the Greens vote.
“It looks like we’ve got a swing to the Greens in almost every single suburb,” he said.
“This was the most radical political platform … that the Greens have ever run anywhere in Australia, and we have won seats, we have won votes.”
Labor’s Price, speaking to Nine at 8.45pm, said she felt “great”.
“I’m so proud of the whole team and the campaign we’ve run, everything has been so positive, and I’m so proud of everybody,” she said.
“I think we’ve made a positive influence across the city, and running against five men essentially is what I’ve done, and that’s difficult in itself.”
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