Sylvie Ellsmore Bio

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Hi, I’m Councillor Sylvie Ellsmore – your Greens Councillor on the City of Sydney and the Greens Mayoral Candidate for the upcoming 2024 local government elections.

About me

I joined the City of Sydney Council in 2021 and was elected by my fellow Councillors as Deputy Mayor in September 2022. I am a founding member and Chair of the City of Sydney’s new Housing for All Working Group and Deputy Chair of the City’s Housing for All Committee.

I have worked as a native title lawyer, union organiser, and community organiser. My roles include former Policy Coordinator at the Sydney Policy Lab (University of Sydney), Executive Officer of the NSW Reconciliation Council and researcher for the Environmental Defenders Office. Working with Aboriginal land councils and environmental groups I have coordinating anti-racism and environmental justice campaigns, and won legal protections for cultural heritage.

I previously represented Newtown as a Local Councillor on Marrickville Council (2012-2016). I am a volunteer karate teacher at Jin Sei Ryu Karate Do (Darlington) and a founding member of my local Redfern, Eveleigh, Darlington, Waterloo Watch (REDWatch) residents’ action group, still going strong after 20 years.

Our work on the City of Sydney Council

I love Sydney, but we’re facing big challenges. Our city has become less equal and we’re heading towards a climate emergency.

The Green's vision for Sydney is a city for everyone, with a local council that takes bold action to address the housing and cost of living crises being faced by our communities.

During my time as Councillor and Deputy Mayor on the City of Sydney Council, the Greens have won free community hall hire for community groups, increased developer contributions for affordable housing, campaigned against anti-protest laws and police intimidation, pushed the city to ban fossil fuel advertising, saved public housing from being sold off, funded the first local housing cooperative in 30 years, exposed special deals made to benefit Star Casino, held the first Trans and Gender Diverse Swim Days in council pools, protected our public parks, made it easier to reclaim out streets for community street parties, and much more.

But there’s still so much more to do – especially when it comes to housing affordability and cost of living, where council focuses only a tiny percentage of its resources and is failing to meet even modest targets to make our city more equal.

Sydney is one of the most expensive cities in the world, and the City of Sydney Council is the wealthiest council in NSW.

It is not good enough to continue with business as usual, when the community needs – and is demanding – radically stronger action, especially on housing affordability.