Ward three councillor Liza Butler has resigned as from Shoalhaven Council.
Ms Butler was recently elected as the Member for South Coast in the NSW Parliament, and said “In the past two weeks I have been appointed to two Select Committees. One of these Committees will see me travelling across regional and rural parts of NSW to examine remote, rural, and regional health.
“Regional and rural health is extremely important for the South Coast Electorate and for far too long we have been left behind in this regard.”
She said, “I am honoured to be working on the Select Committee to implement all 44 recommendations of the Legislative Council’s report into the health outcomes and access to health and hospital services in rural, regional, and remote NSW.
“While I believe that the roles of Councillor and Member for South Coast sit well together regarding constituent issues, I feel it is best that I resign from this position, so that I can solely focus
on representing the people of the South Coast.”
Ms Butler said, “Since being elected the Member for South Coast, there has been instances whereby holding both positions have become a conflict of interest when conducting Council business in the
Chamber and I have been unable to contribute to the debate on the floor of Council.”
Shoalhaven City Council at it’s first meeting of the new council adopted the Countback provision, which
means if a Councillor resigns within the first 18 months of office, the NSW Electoral Commission will recount the votes from the last council elections and elect the person that won the most
votes after excluding the Councillor who has resigned.
It will mean ratepayers will not be burdened with a by-election, and a seamless transition to a new Councillor for Ward three can occur.
Ms Butler said, “It has been a great honour to represent the people of the Shoalhaven over the past 18 months.”
