Roads, rates, rubbish – and war? How foreign conflict could influence NSW’s local council elections

We Vote for Palestine campaigners Michelle Berkon and Jepke Goudsmit have been putting up corflutes and handing out leaflets in Sydney’s east. Photograph: Jessica Hromas/The Guardian

Council elections are typically hyperlocal in Australia. But this year something unusual is going on.

In New South Wales, third-party groups separate from the main political parties are out in force, campaigning about a war on the other side of the world.