Incumbent Lismore Mayor Steve Krieg looks set to retain mayoral, city council spots in NSW Local Government elections

Voters have shown confidence in incumbent Lismore Mayor Steve Krieg. He describes his time in the job as “turbulent”, but productive. Here’s the latest on the council election.

Incumbent Lismore Mayor, Steve Krieg is running to retain the top job as an independent.

Overseeing Lismore as a first-time mayor after record flooding struck the northern NSW regional hub is no mean feat.

Popularly elected leader Steve Krieg did just that and voters still mired in recovery efforts after the record natural disasters seem to want him back for more.

Independent Mr Krieg led both NSW Electoral Commission vote counts for mayor and councillor – leagues ahead of competitors – as of about 3pm on Thursday.

Mr Krieg’s group leads by more than 25 per cent with a total formal count of 48.72 per cent.

Green councillor Adam Guise.

Following up were the Greens, led by Adam Guise on 21.45 per cent, while ranking third was young Labor candidate Harper Dalton-Earls on 17.14 per cent.

As far as the mayoral vote count goes, Mr Krieg was almost 30 per cent ahead of other candidates on 49.39 per cent.

The small business owner said he felt “grateful and thankful for the support shown in such strong numbers”.

The closest mayoral candidate was Green mayoral hopeful Vanessa Ekins on 20.5 per cent.

Vanessa Ekins is running for mayor.

Meanwhile, it’s been “business as usual” for incumbent Lismore mayor Mr Krieg as the official outcome from the local elections is yet to be announced.

He has continued to carry out official mayoral duties until the result is handed down – including attending NSW Reconstruction Authority. flood recovery meetings.

Mr Krieg described his time in council since 2021 as “turbulent” and said the community had “a long road ahead as far as our flood recovery”.

“We still have a lot of our residents and businesses who are still very much struggling post-flood, but a lot of people have moved on with their lives, found different houses to move to,” he said.

Steve Krieg talking flood recovery back in 2022.

With many Lismore businesses represented at the upcoming Regional Business Awards, Mr Krieg said the business community was “very, very strong” amid the recovery.

“Our recovery is going to be built on the back of our strong business community to provide jobs and income and security for our residents,” he said.

“And it’s really promising to see the strength of our local economy.”

As for the make up of the new council, Mr Krieg said he was looking forward to working with new and old councillors committed to Lismore’s recovery and rebuilding efforts.

He said: “Together we can achieve some very positive and strong outcomes for Lismore after a lot of the ground work has been done over the last two years.”

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