Council
23 June, 2026
Show some manners: Offline community much nicer says Smith
The offline Wingecarribee community is much nicer than the online community according to Councillor Nicole Smith.
The offline Wingecarribee community is much nicer than the online community according to Councillor Nicole Smith.
Cr Smith continued her attack on ‘Faceless’ social media forums at last week’s council meeting.
Her rage is still directed at one site in particular: Highlands Opinion.
“I took a risk at the last council meeting by calling out an online Facebook group as ‘faceless’ and then I proceeded to be attacked by that same group for doing that,” Cr Smith said.
“I want to correct the record. When I said ‘faceless’ I did not and would never be so foolish as to call the people of Wingecarribee or people who engage on a forum as ‘faceless’.
“I meant the people behind it – the moderators,” Cr Smith said.
“There are four moderators. They have names and I have yet to meet them or to speak to them.
“I have emailed one of those moderators (Dave Tilley). I was disappointed to see they didn’t attend the public forum yesterday (Wednesday). We had some great speakers.
“With the OK of the mayor I also invited Highlands Opinion and their moderators to a meeting with council, with councillors, to have a chance to have open engagement and debate.
“Unfortunately, I have had no response to that and that goes to the heart of the issue here,” Cr Smith said.
She again acknowledged that council had a communication issue but said it was not alone.
“I think it’s a big issue for regional areas as well but more broadly,” Cr Smith said.
Cr Heather Champion said the discussion around social media had been “interesting and valuable”.
She said council decisions were often presented in social media forums as “simple binaries” that failed to take into account the complexity of debate in the council chamber.
She accused social media forums of manufacturing “artificial community consensus” and said it was a cultural problem that couldn’t be dealt with by strengthening council’s social media policy alone.
Cr Rachel Russell said it was important for councillors to “set the tone from the top” and to listen to the community.
She said there was evidence that was already happening with council’s decision to establish a finance committee.
Cr Russell also sent a message of support to staff.
“If I am engaged in robust discussion, on holding management to account on the performance of this council on behalf of the community, that is not an attack on staff,” Cr Russell said.
“We support the role of staff. As I said at the last meeting I commend everyone working for this council and I see it’s a challenging job.”
Cr David Kent described some of the online content as “quite frankly sad”.
“Some of the platforms seem to exist just to bag council,” he said.
He said council success stories – “stories of local people doing well” – didn’t get a run because they didn’t sit with the agenda of unknown people.
“Don’t get me wrong – I’m not complaining,” Cr Kent said.
“I just don’t regard the material on those sites as close to actual journalism.”
Cr Smith said she had achieved what she set out to achieve.
She said people in the community were now questioning “what’s going on”.
“I hope they (residents) question things and I hope that we as councillors really think about our behaviour online,” Cr Smith said.
She apologised to the Mayor and General Manager, on behalf of the community, for having to bear the brunt of online abuse.
“I think we’re better than that and I think this debate has enabled us to do what we’re here for which is good civic leadership and debate,” she said.
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Disclosure - Cr Moylan left the room and did not participate in the debate due to the close personal relationship with the owner of this publication.
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