Phelps takes aim at Moore as mayoral race heats up

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Dr Phelps, an independent, told the conference on Sunday that she wouldn’t provide details of why her political relationship with Cr Moore failed “except to say two things”:

“Certain understandings I believed we had were recanted just days after the election,” said Dr Phelps, who campaigned with Cr Moore in 2016 and was hand-picked as her deputy before the pair fell out in 2017.

“[And] my experience was that the so-called ‘independent team’ was independent in name only. Independent thinking or expression or voting, as most of us would understand the term, was systematically discouraged.”

Dr Phelps said Cr Moore’s team of independents, which forms a voting bloc on the council, operated “in many ways just like a [political] party”.

She said her experience had “certainly informed my ideas about being a true independent”.

Cr Moore was not available to comment on Sunday. A spokesman pointed to remarks at the time of Dr Phelps’ resignation, which Cr Moore said came after she told her she would not support her bid to remain deputy lord mayor. She said it had become “increasingly clear” Dr Phelps “does not share our values or vision”.

“I have never asked anyone on my team to vote in a way that compromised their beliefs. People on my team share values and a vision.“

When asked last year about a potential challenge from Dr Phelps, Cr Moore said she was “past history”.

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Dr Phelps won the federal seat of Wentworth in Sydney’s eastern suburbs in a 2018 byelection triggered by former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull’s departure, but she conceded defeat to Liberal candidate Dave Sharma just seven months later in the federal election.

She was among high-profile former and serving independent federal MPs including Warringah’s Zali Steggall, Indi’s Helen Haines, Mayo’s Rebekha Sharkie and Tasmanian Senator Jacqui Lambie at the Getting Elected event.

She said at the event the major political parties “provide a tribe for people to identify with”, and they would leverage this, but she sensed a “growing feeling that community-minded independents are becoming a tribe too”.

Like Dr Phelps, former deputy mayor Linda Scott will campaign on a need for new leadership at Town Hall.

But in remarks targeted at her two opponents, Cr Scott said on Sunday: “I’m a work horse, not a show pony. Rather than settling scores of old, I’m fighting for the future of our community.“