East Ward’s Sabbie Kaur, Todd Carney and Garion Thain.

AS the Labor ticket of five East Ward Candidates was the only nomination lodged, there is no need for East Ward to vote and the five will be automatically elected. 

They are:  the most current Mayor, Todd Carney, Garion Thain, Sabbie Kaur,  Edwin Mifsud and Libby Austin.

Garion Thain, son of well-known North Ward Labor Councillor John Thain, expressed his surprise at being successfully elected without the need to run a campaign. 

“It’s an honour to be following in the footsteps of Greg Davies and Todd Carney by joining the East Ward Labor team,” Mr Thain said.

“It was humbling to learn that East Ward is uncontested this year, and that I’ll likely become a Penrith City Councillor next month.

“Ultimately, I believe that it would have been better if this result was at the ballot box instead of the ballot draw.

“There’s a few sitting councillors who’ve been let down by their party and didn’t get a chance to be on the ballot through no fault of their own. While I think it raises concerns about their party apparatus, it’s not a knock on them personally and I hope to see them again sometime in the future.”

Mr Thain was a candidate in the last state election, and although he didn’t win the seat against sitting member Tanya Davies, he said it was a great experience. 

“Last year in the NSW State Election I met countless locals on the hustings, and the response that I got made me feel encouraged to keep my hand up and to continue giving it a go.

“East Ward is where I grew up and still live today, and I’m just very grateful to have a chance to represent them with Todd Carney and the rest of our dedicated team. I promise to always put the interests of Penrith first.”