Greens Member for Ballina Tamara Smith says she’ll be supporting a Labor proposal to ban real estate agents and property developers from NSW local governments.
Members of the state’s legislative assembly are due to meet in parliament today for the first time in 2022.
Labor upper house member Walt Secord introduced the bill to change rules around qualifying for local government two years ago.
It’s illegal in NSW for property developers to be members of parliament but local government, where most regional development decisions are made, was still open to real estate agents and developers wanting a seat on councils by the time delayed elections happened in December 2021.
The legislative council passed Mr Secord’s bill without any changes in 2020 but it has stalled in the lower house since, with a second reading on Tuesday’s parliamentary agenda.
Real estate speculation the ‘antithesis of what people want in councillors’, says Ballina MP
‘Real estate speculation is the antithesis of what people want in councillors,’ Ms Smith told Bay FM’s Community Newsroom on Friday.
‘That is not in any way demonizing real estate agents,’ Ms Smith continued, ’but the conflict of interest when you are literally the decision-makers around developments, that you would have that direct fiscal agenda is just, I think, a bridge too far’.
The Greens member said her party already banned real estate agents from running for pre-selection in local government but acknowledged the rule came after a lesson learned the hard way.
‘We did have a prior real estate agent who was in The Greens quite notoriously,’ Ms Smith said, ‘and we’ve changed our rules locally, so that that can’t happen’.
Byron’s branch of The Greens was scandalised two council terms ago when one of its members, also a real estate agent, won a seat on the Byron Shire Council and voted against fellow party members in support of controversial development applications.
‘I think that the community expect their local government representatives to be community minded,’ Ms Smith said.
Winning Lismore mayoral campaign likened to pork-barrelling
The state representative for Ballina said she was looking forward to working with the two recently elected mayors in her electorate, Sharon Cadwallader for Ballina and Michael Lyon for Byron.
Ms Smith was especially pleased to see a woman representing The Greens on the Ballina Shire Council for the first time: Kiri Dicker.
But she expressed disappointment with the winning campaign undertaken in the neighbouring Lismore local government area.
Newcomer Mayor Steve Krieg convincingly won the top job after campaigning alongside a team of thirteen other candidates, despite the council only having eleven seats.
The tactic meant anyone in Lismore who voted 1 for Mr Krieg on the council form without taking the time to preference below the line effectively preferenced all fourteen members of Mr Krieg’s team.
The team went on to win a six-seat majority.
‘I don’t like it, I don’t think the community like that kind of behaviour so overtly at local government level,’ Ms Smith said.
‘But it’s hard, you know, it’s not illegal,’ she said, ‘it’s a bit like pork barrelling’.
‘It doesn’t pass the pub test, it doesn’t pass the integrity test.’
Ms Smith said she thought people in Lismore were ‘just desperate for a change’ but warned voters to ‘be careful what they wish for’.
‘All of those councillors are inexperienced and I do not think having inexperienced mayors is a good idea,’ the Greens member said.
The state politician said until councillors received ‘a living wage’ she couldn’t see much hope for improvements in local government campaigns.
‘Over the border, in Queensland, councillors get paid $80,000 a year, our people get less than $20,000,’ Ms Smith said, ‘and so they have to keep full time jobs’.
‘I think it’s time that we really lift the standard.’
Climate action and saving koalas at top of Ballina MP agenda
In keeping with traditional Greens’ environmental values, Ms Smith highlighted two related matters to come before the legislative assembly this week.
The Ballina MP had sponsored a petition originating from Clarence Valley voters calling on the government to purchase critical koala habitat in Port Macquarie.
Nearly 25,000 people had signed the petition as of Tuesday morning.
Notes on the petition referred to a 200-hectare piece of land at 147 Ruins Way as ‘the largest piece of privately-owned unburnt core koala habitat east of the Pacific Highway’.
‘The property also provides habitat for numerous other threatened species including the critically endangered Swift Parrot and Regent Honeyeater, plus threatened forest owls, Square-tailed Kite, Little Lorikeet, Varied Sitella, Glossy-Black Cockatoo and Grey-headed Flying Fox,’ the notes read.
The property had been earmarked for residential development but Ms Smith said new NSW environment minister James Griffin had effectively quashed those plans.
‘It’s very welcome news,’ Ms Smith said, ‘but I’ll still take the opportunity to highlight that koalas are headed towards extinction across the state and that so much more needs to be done’.
The Greens member said her party would support a Labor climate change bill introduced by Lakemba MP Jihad Dib but would be suggesting amendments.
Labor’s emissions targets and ambitions for NSW were too conservative, Ms Smith said.
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