‘Canterbury Bankstown needs full-time councillors’

Councillors from Canterbury-Bankstown Council should be made full-time, according to one of the councillors.

Bilal El-Hayek will be moving the full-time councillors motion at the next council meeting. Picture: Simon Bullard

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COUNCILLORS from Canterbury-Bankstown Council should be made full-time, Cr Bilal El-Hayyek said.

A representative for Bankstown ward, Cr El-Hayyek told the recent council meeting that councillors all have jobs and because Canterbury- Bankstown Council has the most number of residents per councillor (23,663), it is important to consider the full-time request.

Cr El-Hayyek, the youth co-ordinator at Bankstown PCYC, compared the ratio of councillors to residents in several local government areas including Strathfield (5732), Fairfield (15,293), Liverpool (18,575) and Blacktown (22,464).

Canterbury Bankstown councillor Bilal El-Hayek was awarded the Stepan Kerkyasharian AO Medal (Harmony Medal) for his work in multicultural communitities. He is with children at the PCYC Bankstown. Picture: Simon Bullard

Cr El-Hayyek will be moving a motion at the next council meeting that, “the council write to the NSW Premier and Minister for Local Government, to advocate for provisions to be made for full-time councillors in NSW”.

“To try and provide our residents with an equitable level of access to the democratic process, we must all spend more time than any of our colleagues from neighbouring councils, often at the expense of our families,” he said.

“We all have jobs, which we must in order to provide for our families.”

He called on the State government to legislate “the role of councillor in line with the demand of our important roles”.