A Mid North Coast deputy mayor has called out his fellow councillors for flunking every single one of the attendance targets they set for themselves last year.
“We get to set our own [targets], and again we didn't meet any of them,” MidCoast Council deputy mayor Jeremy Miller said.
Targets: For the 2025/6 year, councillors agreed they would:
Attend 90 percent of council meetings,
Attend 80 percent of councillor workshops and pre-meeting briefings,
Attend 50 percent of Community Conversations events.
What’s that: Community Conversations are informal open forums hosted by the council in public spaces, where residents can ask questions of council staff and representatives.
How they did: Only seven of 11 councillors attended 90 percent of meetings; six of 11 hit the 80 percent workshop target; and just five of 11 met the 50 percent Community Conversations target.
Three councillors attended less than 10 percent of the Community Conversations events.
Councillors appointed to internal council committees turned up to meetings 82 percent of the time, while councillors appointed to external committees attended on 62 percent of occasions.
Deputy’s call: At council’s August 19 meeting, Miller called on his colleagues to reflect on their attendance rates.
“We're all paid the same,” he said. “Collectively, we have failed our own targets and we should think about that.”
No other councillors chose to comment on the attendance rates during the meeting.
Councillor pay: MidCoast Council is considered a non-metropolitan, general purpose council for a “Regional Strategic Area”.
As of 1 July 2026, councillors in such councils can be paid a maximum of $38,050 a year.