Lismore City Council to hold 2024 referendum on reducing number of councillors

The Lismore community will decide whether to slash the number of councillors at an upcoming referendum. Here’s what we know.

Lismore City Council. Back: Peter Colby, Big Rob, Andrew Bing, Vanessa Ekins, Andrew Gordon, Adam Guise. Front: L-R: Elly Bird, Jeri Hall, Steve Krieg, Electra Jensen and Darlene Cook.

Lismore City Council will hold a referendum at the 2024 local government elections so the community can vote whether to reduce the number of councillors from 11 to nine.

Councillor Andrew Bing tabled a motion during Tuesday night’s council meeting for the council to begin the process of reducing the number of councillors as soon as practicable.

Councillor Big Rob said if the cut was enacted immediately it would knock Cr Bing and councillor Adam Guise off council.

However, if voters do ultimately choose to reduce the number of sitting councillors the decision won’t come into effect until 2028.

Cr Guise said the issue of reducing the number of councillors had “raised its head before” and he questioned whether the motion was targeted at pushing him off council.

“I get that 11 councillors here is quite a large number in comparison to some of our other councils around the region, but it does reflect the diversity of our community,” he said.

Lismore councillor Andrew Bing.

Cr Guise said having more councillors was “good for democracy”.

“There is not always a majority of councillors who will represent the diversity of our community,” he said.

Mayor Steve Krieg supported the motion to cut numbers, saying it was not politically motivated but about coming into line with other councils in the state.

“Tweed has a population of 100,000 and I would suggest their community is equally as diverse as ours,” he said.

“This is not an attack on anyone, any party … it’s about realigning our council group Mwith the many other council groups around us who have a far less number of councillors and quite often quite a larger population base.

“We’re not making the decision. We’re taking it to a referendum to let the people decide what they want.”

Cr Andrew Gordon said it was an opportunity to involve the community.

“Let them decide – how much diversity do we really need?,” he said.

Councillor Elly Bird said Lismore was not an “ordinary council dealing with ordinary matters”.

“And we won't be for probably at least 20 years, if not more,” she said.

“We have really significant thinking to be doing about the future of this community.”

Cr Bird said: “There‘s some heavy lifting to be done in this chamber … we need more people in this room to do that work.”

Cr Vanessa Ekins said a referendum would cost ratepayers tens of thousands of dollars and she questioned why Lismore needed to conform with surrounding councils.

“I would have thought that the more representation we have, the easier it is for our community to access us,” she said.

“I would argue that we need to be as available to our community as possible. And that means that the more councillors we have, the more diversity of views we have and the better decision making we have.”

Mayor Steve Krieg, councillors Darlene Cook, Vanessa Ekins, Elly Bird, Adam Guise, Jeri Hall, Peter Colby, Andrew Gordon, Electra Jensen, Big Rob and Andrew Bing.

Cr Ekins said councillors were only remunerated about $24,000 a year – “a bit more than the dole and less than the pension” – so savings would be minimal.

“Think about the role the council has – we are the core of the whole community,” she said.

“We provide roads, footpaths, sporting facilities, libraries, art galleries, 270 parks, sewage treatment, water and waste. All of these things that our community absolutely needs, essential services.”

Cr Bing reserved the right not to speak to the motion, and refused to answer questions from Cr Vanessa Ekins about his motivations.

Councillors Gordon, Hall, Jensen, Bing and Krieg voted for the motion, while Bird, Colby Ekins, Rob, and Guise voted against. Councillor Cook was absent.

Mayor Krieg used his casting vote to adopt the motion.