Former 60 Minutes reporter Charles Wooley is Hobart’s new lord mayor. The Tasmanian Electoral Commission declared the result shortly after 6:45pm on Thursday 29 October, Pulse Tasmania reported.
Wooley won 55% of the final vote after preferences carried him past the Greens’ Bill Harvey.
How the Count Turned
Harvey was in front after count nine, with 9,992 votes to Wooley’s 9,155, according to Pulse Tasmania.
The result turned when third-placed John Kelly, on 8,458 votes, was excluded and his preferences were distributed.
Election analyst Kevin Bonham said Wooley had won the vacant lord mayoralty without having served on the council.
“This has never happened in Hobart before,” Bonham said, Pulse Tasmania reported.
From Television to the Town Hall
Wooley spent more than 25 years with 60 Minutes and is a former deputy mayor of Sorell, according to Pulse Tasmania. He has said he will serve one term.
He replaces Anna Reynolds, who did not recontest after eight years in the role.
In a social media video after the declaration, Wooley set out what he wanted from the new council.
“It is my devout hope that we can get nine reasonable people on this council,” he said, according to Pulse Tasmania. “Not much more to say except that the work starts now.”
Not the Boss
Wooley held his first press conference as lord mayor-elect on Friday 30 October, across the road from the council, Pulse Tasmania reported.
He told reporters: “I am not the boss. I represent the council to you, the public and I will represent you, the public, to the council.”
He campaigned on the slogan “Hobart for Hobartians”, promising an end to infighting on the council, ABC News reported.
The slogan came from a visit to Barcelona, where he met that city’s first female mayor, according to the ABC.
“On the wall of her office she had ‘Never forget for whom we run this city’,” Wooley said, the ABC reported.
“By being nice,” he replied, when asked how he would end the division on council.
Rates, Roads and a Smaller Council
Wooley also campaigned for a “moratorium on bike lanes”, according to ABC News.
He said he would like to give everyone a $200 rate cut, but that his advisers say he cannot. He was firmer on a cap, saying “one way or another I’m going to cap rates”, ABC News reported.
He supports council amalgamations and wants the local government code of conduct legislation reviewed, ABC News reported.
On the Macquarie Point stadium, Wooley said in a September interview that he would have preferred it built elsewhere, but that it had passed parliament and the city had to make it work, Pulse Tasmania reported.
The council he will lead is smaller. It shrinks from 12 members to nine, according to Pulse Tasmania.
As counted on 29 October, the new council was projected to have eight men and one woman, incumbent Louise Elliot, ABC News reported. Hobart has not had an all-male council since Mabel Miller became the first woman elected, in 1952.
Asked about the projected make-up of the council, Wooley said: “Women didn’t vote for women,” according to Pulse Tasmania.
Counting of councillor votes was still under way when the lord mayoral result was declared. The ABC reported on 29 October that all results were expected by Tuesday 3 November.
Statewide, more than 85% of voters returned their ballots in the local government elections, according to ABC News.
Buzzline has also reported on the South Atlantic whale sanctuary being rejected again in Hobart, and on Michelle Landry’s plan to retire as Canavan eyes Capricornia.
More politics news is in Buzzline’s Politics section.
Sources: ABC News, “Charles Wooley elected lord mayor of Hobart as counting of council votes continues”, 29 October 2026 (https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-10-29/tasmania-local-government-elections-result-update/107321966); ABC News, “Hobart lord mayor-elect Charles Wooley holds his first media conference”, 30 October 2026 (https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-10-30/charles-wooley-hobart-lord-mayor-council-elections/107326748); Pulse Tasmania, “Wooley vows to end Hobart council ‘dogfight’ with ‘reason over ideology'”, 29 October 2026 (https://pulsetasmania.com.au/news/wooley-vows-to-end-hobart-council-dogfight-with-reason-over-ideology/); Pulse Tasmania, “‘I am not the boss’: Charles Wooley says he will lead Hobart council differently”, 30 October 2026 (https://pulsetasmania.com.au/news/i-am-not-the-boss-charles-wooley-says-he-will-lead-hobart-council-differently/)
Photo: edwardhblake, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
Hobart Town Hall on Macquarie Street, home of the Hobart City Council, in September 2016.
