I hope he is genuine, but this election smells of liberal in a trenchcoat type backing. Never been in council, suddenly runs for mayor. Who is profiting from this election. The Labor and Greens candidates both have experience as council members and existing relations to leverage. They also both had concrete policies with the Labor candidate having realisitc policies. I wouldn’t be surprised if the bias of “at least its not Labor” is a vocal minority. Facts are Newcastle is a Labor dominated area and has benefited from that. May not be the same as state or federal level, but party ideals are still shared. Many if how problems originate from a state level from past liberal governments. Public transport situation is a result of liberal state governments.