Mount Isa City Council mayor Danielle Slade voted against a pay rise for herself and councillors at an ordinary council meeting on Wednesday.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Council carried the motion to accept the maximum amount of councillor remuneration for 2022/23, as determined by the Local Government Remuneration Commission 2020-21 Annual Report.
This resulted in a pay increase of 1.02 per cent, with the mayor receiving $127,366, the deputy mayor $76,421 and councillors $63,684.
Cr Slade voted against the motion, asking councillors to consider donating the increase to a local charity.
"I would like councillors to consider rejecting the increase and maybe using the increase to donate that extra money to a charity or worthwhile event in the city," she said.
"I will be voting against this because I feel we could actually do something worthwhile with that money instead of taking it for ourselves."
All councillors moved the motion, and Cr Slade had her vote recorded against.
Cr Slade said she was disappointed that councillors had voted to accept the pay rise.
"I'm not doing this role for the money, I'm doing this for my community," Cr Slade said.
"There are definitely more bad days than good in my role, but I always remind myself that I'm here for Mount Isa, the residents have put their trust in me and I'm not going to let them down.
"There is no doubt our councillors have been struggling to get to civic and council events, besides myself, we've had no councillors in attendance for Australia Day, only two turned up for the Sports Expo, no councillors for the Anzac dawn service and only two in attendance for the Anzac Day parade.
"I understand that councillors have other commitments, but we signed up for this and if you're not going to attend these civic events, then please don't put your hand up for a pay rise."
ALSO IN THE NEWS:
Cr Slade said it did not feel right to take a pay rise when Mount Isa City Council was still working through its own Enterprise Bargaining Agreement.
"It doesn't seem right to take a pay rise, when the council employees are still trying to negotiate their own pay rise," she said.
"I was hoping councillors would vote against the pay rise and instead use the money to give to a worthwhile charity or organisation and there are a lot of organisations and residents doing it tough at the moment and the cost of living is still rising.
"While it's only a small amount per councillor, it's $10,000 we could be giving back to the community."
Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can continue to access our trusted content:
- Bookmark https://www.northweststar.com.au/
- Make sure you are signed up for our breaking and regular headlines newsletters
- Follow us on Twitter
- Follow us on Instagram
- Follow us on Google News