Anti-smart cities Libertarians score local council election wins after NSW Liberals’ nomination debacle

The Libertarian party’s sole NSW state MP, John Ruddick, says his party is ‘opposed to anything to do with smart cities, 15-minute cities, the whole lot’. Photograph: Mike Bowers/The Guardian

Libertarians who fear “smart cities” technology will be used to curtail freedoms have been elected to councils across New South Wales after the Liberal party failed to nominate more than 130 of its candidates.

“Smart cities” is a broad term that encompasses the use of technology to collect data on people’s movements to help guide local government planning on matters such as traffic, rubbish collection and reducing carbon emissions.