THE NSW Electoral Commission is announcing the detailed results of the December 4 council elections this week, letting the public know the identity of their civic representatives for the next four years, and the pundits to pore over preferences and outcomes in pursuit of the minutiae of politics.
In Newcastle, where the outcomes are already known, nine of the 13 councillors are women, and Labor's deputy lord mayor in the previous council, Cr Declan Clausen, is championing the new lineup as "the most diverse" in the city's history.
That's a 70/30 gender ratio, and well beyond the gender parity that serves as the nominal target of any push for equality.
Additionally - in this age of Greta Thunberg - Cr Clausen champions the role of younger councillors, including Callum Pull, the Liberal Party candidate from Ward Four, who at 20 eclipses Labor's Alderman Jeff Parker (21 when elected in 1980), and Cr Clausen (22, in a 2015 byelection) to become the city's youngest civic representative.
Gender, age and - in Cr Clausen's case - a heart-on-sleeve gay identity - may well influence the way that councillors, and so the council itself, makes decisions.
But as much as diversity should, by definition, arrive at outcomes that take more than the traditional white male viewpoint into consideration, it is not the only path by which a council can manage the basics of its operations, and fulfil as much as possible the wishes of ratepayers.
Otherwise, what is the ALP to make of its showing in Port Stephens, where it has gone from one councillor to four, and where Leah Anderson went within 0.59 per cent of unseating Independent Ryan Palmer as mayor?
Presumably it would think that was an improved showing? Elected as a councillor for East Ward, Cr Anderson said she was "compelled" to point out that she was now the only woman among 10 councillors, a situation she says she'll be "working damn hard to make sure never happens again".
Her disappointment is understandable.
A 90-per-cent male council does not look like progress towards gender equality.
Ultimately, though, the characteristics of individual councillors matter far less to ratepayers than the ability to put their differences aside, to guide the delivery of services that will in turn create the best outcomes for their community.
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