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“I don’t think we should necessarily regard them as an enemy species because they’re property developers or real estate agents; they’re entitled to have a voice around the table,” NSW local government minister Shelley Hancock said.
Last month, the NSW Labor opposition poised itself to introduce legislation that, if passed, would ban real estate agents and property developers from serving on local councils.
REINSW president Leanne Pilkington labelled the proposed ban as “out of line”.
“Anyone can have a conflict of interest depending on what is before the council,” she said.
“To suggest only real estate and every agent has a conflict of interest is outrageous.”
Last week, Ms Hancock was asked questions about Labor’s position during a budget estimates heading before NSW Parliament’s joint planning and environment committee, the Sydney Morning Herald reported.
“If we start to ban certain groups of people from running for local government, where do we stop?” she said.
“I don’t think we should necessarily regard them as an enemy species because they’re property developers or real estate agents; they’re entitled to have a voice around the table.”
She went on to make a “flippant” remark about whether other groups should be banned from being elected to council, such as teachers.
“Let’s not classify all property developers as ‘evil’,” Ms Hancock said.
Instead of passing legislation, Ms Hancock said political parties could take it into their own hands to disqualify certain people during their pre-selection process.
“If they have concerns about property developers or real estate agents, they can pre-empt the election of those people to local government themselves,” she said.
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