Yesterday Liberal councillors James Owen and Rhiannon Brinsmead walked out of the extraordinary Tweed Shire Council (TSC) meeting in protest against the way the mayor of Tweed Shire is elected.
This follows Owen and Brinsmead’s failed Notice of Motion (NoM) at the 17 August TSC meeting where they sought to have a referendum on how to elect the Tweed mayor at the same time as the 2024 local government council elections.
Two options
The NSW Electoral Commission provides two ways for council mayors to be elected. They can be elected for a term of two years by the councillors (the full term of an elected council is usually four years, as is currently the case in Tweed Shire). The second option is being elected by popular vote for the full term of council of four years.
During the 17 August TSC meeting Cr Owen highlighted that he had received almost 25 per cent of the primary vote and that many people had questioned why he had not become mayor.
Cr Owen also pointed out that Byron, Ballina, Richmond and the Gold Coast shires had popularly-elected mayors. However, Mayor Chris Cherry said later in the meeting that of the 128 NSW councils only 29 of them had a popularly-elected mayor and the other 99 mayors were elected by councillors in the same manner as Tweed Council’s mayor.
Councillor Brinsmead seconded the motion for a referendum on how the mayor is elected, stating that this had been one of their election campaign promises.
A number of issues were raised by councillors as to why they would not support the NoM brought forward by Owen. Independent councillor Meridith Dennis flagged the influence of how much money each candidate had available to spend on their campaign and how this is reflected in the number of votes they receive.
‘The concern I have is that it appears the bigger the budget, the more votes you’re able to expect,’ Cr Dennis told the meeting.
‘Not everybody had [a], $40,000 budget.’
Cr Firth pointed out that none of the current councillors would be there if the referendum did change the electoral process and so she believed everyone would be ‘objective’ in their decision.
Cr Cherry added, ‘I think having a popularly elected mayor does leave that role very vulnerable.
‘As Councillor Dennis has raised, whoever has the most money in a campaign will become mayor. And certainly, we saw a person who spent the most money in the [last] campaign received the most votes in our election.’
Owen and Brinsmead walkout
There was some confusion in the packed gallery at yesterday’s TSC meeting (21 September) when Councillor Owen exited the meeting on his phone and was joined by Cr Binsmead. However, it soon became clear that they were refusing to participate in the election of the mayor for the rest of this term of council.
Crs Owen and Brinsmead have since stated in a press release that they ‘chose to abstain from the vote as they do not support the current process of electing the Tweed Shire mayor.’
Traditionally to abstain from a vote a councillor will state that intention rather than simply leave a meeting. Councillors are required to leave a meeting when there is a significant conflict of interest in a debate and vote before the council.
‘Based on the volume of community feedback that we have received, we strongly believe that, had the elected body supported a process to allow a referendum on how the mayor is elected, that the community would have overwhelmingly voted to choose to elect their own mayor,’ they said in their joint statement.
Cherry reelected
Councillor Cherry was then reelected unopposed at the extraordinary meeting.
Cr Cherry will remain mayor for another year, until the upcoming NSW Local Government election on Saturday 14 September 2024.
Addressing a full Council Chamber, Cr Cherry thanked her fellow councillors for their support and said she remained committed to working hard for Tweed residents.
‘I thank everyone for their continued faith and trust in me. It is a massive job to represent the people of the Tweed and I am committed to continuing to work well with my fellow councillors,’ Cr Cherry said.
‘For the next year, I will be concentrating on trying to address the housing crisis, which is the biggest issue facing us today, along with the impact of climate change. I will continue to work hard to ensure every decision we make is done in the best interest of the community at large.’
This is Cr Cherry’s third term as mayor, after holding the position from September 2020 until the election in December 2021. She was first elected to Tweed Shire Council in September 2016 as an independent and previously served as deputy mayor in 2016/17, 2018/19 and in 2019/20.
To view the meeting minutes and webcast, visit tweed.nsw.gov.au/CouncilMeetings.
For four decades The Echo has printed the stories some people loved, some people hated, and some pretended not to read. If you want us to keep telling the truth, the real truth, not the sugar-coated version. We’ll need your support to keep the presses rolling. 
