City of Sydney

The City of Sydney is the local government area covering the Sydney central business district and surrounding inner city suburbs of the greater metropolitan area of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.

The central business district of Sydney is roughly bounded by Circular Quay and Sydney Harbour to the north, Macquarie Street to the east, Darling Harbour to the west and Liverpool Street and Central railway station to the south.

On 6 February 2004, the former local government area of the City of South Sydney was formally merged into the City of Sydney. Suburbs within the boundaries of the City of Sydney before the merger include the actual downtown or central business district of Sydney itself, Pyrmont and Ultimo to the west, Haymarket to the south and Woolloomooloo to the east and other suburbs. Suburbs within the City of South Sydney before the merger included Alexandria, Darlington (now mostly occupied by the University of Sydney), Erskineville, Newtown, Redfern, Glebe, Waterloo, Paddington.

The leader of the City of Sydney holds the title of the Lord Mayor of Sydney. The current Lord Mayor is Councillor Clover Moore who has been in office since 27 March 2004.

Demographics

At the 2011 Census, there were 169,505 people in the Sydney local government area, of these 52.8% were male and 47.2% were female. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people made up 1.3% of the population. The median age of people in the City of Sydney was 32 years. Children aged 0 – 14 years made up 7.1% of the population and people aged 65 years and over made up 7.9% of the population. Of people in the area aged 15 years and over, 25.5% were married and 10.1% were either divorced or separated.

Population growth in the City of Sydney between the 2001 Census and the 2006 Census was 3.31%; and in the subsequent five years to the 2011 Census, population growth was 4.57%. When compared with total population growth of Australia for the same periods, being 5.78% and 8.32% respectively, population growth in the Sydney local government area was a little over half the national average. The median weekly income for residents within the City of Sydney was more than 1.5 times the national average.

The proportion of dwellings in the City of Sydney that are apartments or units is 73.6%, which is substantially different from the Australian average of 13.6%. The proportion of residents in the Sydney local government area that claimed Australian ancestry was approximately half the national average.

Politics

of the City of Sydney have been significantly altered by state governments on at least four occasions since 1945, with advantageous effect to the governing party in the New South Wales Parliament at the time. Successive State governments of both major parties, Labor and Liberal, have re-drawn the electoral boundaries to include inner suburbs that are traditionally supportive of them, and to exclude suburbs that are traditionally hostile. In 1972 the Council had prepared the City of Sydney Strategic Plan, only the second city (after New York) to prepare a comprehensive assessment and plan of major issues for the future. With triennial reviews, this guided development of the City for twenty years,and a similar planning process has continued.

A 1987 Liberal re-organisation saw Sydney Council split, with southern suburbs forming a new South Sydney Council. This was thought to advantage the Liberal government of the day, as the southern suburbs had traditionally voted Labor.

In 2004, the Labor State Government undid this change, again merging the councils of the City of Sydney and the South Sydney Council. Critics claimed that this was performed with the intention of creating a "super-council" which would be under the control of Labor, which also controlled the State Government. Subsequent to this merger, an election took place on 27 March 2004 which resulted in the independent candidate Clover Moore defeating the high-profile Labor candidate, former federal minister Michael Lee and winning the position of Lord Mayor. Critics of the merger claimed that this was a result of a voter backlash against the party for attempting to create the "super-council".

The daily administration of the City of Sydney is performed by its General Manager, currently Monica Barone, who reports to the Council.