Item 9.8 of Lismore City Council’s March business paper recommended that Council disband all their Advisory Groups, but in a late move, Cr Rob proposed a different motion which called for all advisory groups except the NAG retained, with the name of the Koala Implementation Group changed to Koala Advisory Group and a new group, the Lismore Villages Advisory Group, created.
Despite being presented with strong and valid arguments for the NAG to be retained, at its meeting on 25th March, a majority of Lismore City Clrs supported Cr Big Rob’s motion to disband the Nimbin Advisory Group and instead create a Lismore Villages Advisory Group with a format and terms of reference as composed by Cr Rob. Crs Waters, Guise and Dalton-Earls voted against the motion to disband.
This Council resolution realised a longstanding and often stated ambition of Cr Rob. Although the argument was strongly made that the longevity (operating since 2010), population, structure, community volunteer engagement, activism and successful track record of achieving major community projects made Nimbin village a unique example that cannot be satisfactorily equated to other villages in the LGA, this argument did not sway councillors.
Indeed Mayor Kreig, who seconded the motion to disband, said he didn’t want to favour one village group. He demonstrated that viewpoint by saying that if you have a child who represents their country in sport and have other children less skilled, you should treat them all equally and not favour the gifted child. I guess Nimbin is the unlucky gifted sporty child in that analogy.
As far as I can understand from discussion at the Council meeting, under Cr Rob’s new terms of reference, the Lismore Villages Advisory Group would meet quarterly in the Lismore Council Chamber, and each of six villages will be entitled to two representatives (ie two for Nimbin). Those representatives will be selected by Crs from expressions of interest submitted to Council by interested individuals.
Councillors appoint the chair and deputy chair, and other councillors and the public would be allowed to attend. In addition to conducting the meeting, the chair would also be required to take meeting notes and brief other councillors of any relevant issues. No meeting minutes would be taken and no decisions can be made by the group. In a cost-cutting measure, no provision is made for any Council staff help with the administration of the group.
Meeting management and agenda-setting for a group of 12 representatives (plus councillors), with a wide range of issues requiring discussion, is likely to be at best difficult. The chair is Cr Waters, deputy Cr Rob, members Crs Battista, Dalton-Earls, Hall, Jensen and Knight-Smith.
This is a sad outcome for Nimbin and community consultation in general but it’s expected that Council will immediately call for expressions of interest with the aim that representatives can be selected before the end of June. Please consider who would make a good Nimbin representative on this new Villages Advisory Group, and urge them to complete an expression of interest.
