Anthony Robert Pooley (born 7 March 1960) is an Australian public servant and former local government politician, who served from 2002 as the last Mayor of South Sydney before its amalgamation with the

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. Established by Act of Parliament in 1842, th ...

in 2004.

Political career

Pooley was elected as a Labor Councillor in 2000 to the

City of South Sydney The South Sydney City Council was a local government area covering the inner-eastern and inner-Southern Sydney suburbs of Sydney. It was forcibly merged with the Sydney City Council by the New South Wales State Government in 2004. The council ch ...

and was subsequently elected as Mayor in 2002. In August 2003, while serving as mayor, Pooley voted with the council majority of 7–2 to implement a relationships register for same-sex couples, being the first of its kind at the time in Australia. After supporting proposals to amalgamate the council the City of Sydney, in February 2004, when this was brought into effect, Pooley was appointed as one of three Commissioners administering the newly constituted City of Sydney. When the new council was elected in March 2004, Pooley was one of three Labor councillors elected to the council. In September 2007 Pooley was elected to a single term as Deputy Lord Mayor. Pooley did not seek re-election to Council at the September 2008 elections.

Later career

In 2007, while still serving as a councillor, Pooley took up a position as Chief of Staff to the Minister for Ageing and Disability Services,

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. He continued as Keneally's chief of staff until December 2009, when she was appointed Premier, at which point he became her Deputy Chief of Staff, serving until Labor lost office in 2011. In 2014, Pooley was called before the Independent Commission Against Corruption as a witness to testify regarding doctored cabinet minutes relating to Australian Water Holdings. From 2012 to 2013, Polley was Deputy Chief of Staff to federal minister

Tony Burke Anthony Stephen Burke (born 4 November 1969) is an Australian politician serving as Leader of the House, Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations and Minister for the Arts since 2022. He is a member of the Australian Labor Party (ALP ...

in his capacity as Minister for Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities. Pooley is currently the NSW operations manager of National Disability Services, a private sector disability services organisation. A longtime resident of Redfern, he is married to senior public servant Joanna Quilty and has a daughter, Beth. In 2021, Pooley was announced as a candidate for the December 2021 Council election for the City of Sydney as part of the 8-member Labor ticket led by

Linda Scott Linda Scott (born Linda Joy Sampson; June 1, 1945) is an American pop singer and actress who was active from the late 1950s to the early 1970s. Her biggest hit was the 1961 million-selling single, " I've Told Every Little Star". She went on to ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pooley, Tony 1960 births Living people Australian Labor Party mayors Australian Labor Party councillors Australian public servants Sydney City Councillors Deputy Lord Mayors of Sydney Mayors and Lord Mayors of Sydney