Council
12 November, 2026
Councillors need to be better paid: Ruddick
Libertarian MLC John Ruddick says councils across NSW are “in crisis” because general managers are being paid too much – and elected representatives are being paid too little.
Libertarian MLC John Ruddick says councils across NSW are “in crisis” because general managers are being paid too much – and elected representatives are being paid too little.
He said it was time to stop paying general managers “absurd” packages and to start paying councillors more so they can do their jobs effectively.
Mr Ruddick raised the issue on Radio 2ST on Wednesday morning and again in NSW Parliament on Wednesday afternoon.
Speaking with Graeme Day on Radio 2ST, Mr Ruddick was initially asked about the recent expulsion of Cr Sara Moylan from a Wingecarribee Shire Council meeting for suggesting that ratepayer funds were being wasted.
Mr Ruddick said he was he was “outraged”.
“We need our elected representatives to be able to freely say that,” the MLC said.
He then quickly turned his attention to council general managers.
“Councillors are elected to represent the people but they get so overwhelmed they can’t keep up so all the power goes to the general manager,” Mr Ruddick said.
He said councillors then simply became a rubber stamp for the general manager.
“If we pay our councillors more we can attract high-quality people to council and they can dedicate the required amount of time to council to fulfil their roles.
“We can then pay the general manager a lot less and with good councillors on there we can genuinely find ways to reduce spending and cut rates,” Mr Ruddick said.
Mr Ruddick said some general managers were almost getting paid as much as the Prime Minister while elected councillors only received $20,000 to $30,000.
He said general managers were only interested in “growing their own little bureaucratic empire”.
“They keep raising rates so they can grow their little empire,” he said.
Mr Ruddick said there were ‘some’ functional councils in NSW but “most were dysfunctional”.
“The people don’t want to keep paying these rates.
“They elect councillors to try and bring the rates down to reduce the waste but in many cases they are powerless and that’s what we saw in that video (of Cr Moylan’s expulsion) from Wingecarribee Shire Council,” he said.
Mr Ruddick said councillors were being treated as “little pawns” who were not very important.
“Well, they are important – they are democratically elected,” he said.
Speaking in Parliament later in the day, Mr Ruddick said it was a case at dysfunctional councils of the “tail wagging the dog” with the tail being paid a fortune and the dog being paid “almost nothing”.
He said part-time councillors were routinely handed 1000-page documents which they were expected to absorb within a few days before making important decisions.
He said they were heavily reliant on unelected officials for information.
“We have created a system where the permanent officials have the money, the staff, the legal advice and the institutional knowledge while the elected representatives have almost none of those things.
“And then we act with surprise when the bureaucracy wins every fight.
“The solution is straightforward and would actually save a great deal of money,” Mr Ruddick said.
“Stop paying the general managers these absurd packages.
“Cap them and use the savings to pay councillors a proper full-time salary equivalent to what a parliamentary staffer is paid.
“Give them the capacity to actually do the job that voters elected them to do.
“When the people who are accountable have real resources and real pay the unelected officials will no longer be able to run the place like their private domain.
“Ratpayers will be better off and rates can come down.
“So, we’ve got a council spending $100 million a year. We pay the councillors a decent wage so they can do their job.
“We will probably be able to get that $100 million down to $80 million because we will have some cost cutters in there rather than bureaucrats,” he said.
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