Council
17 September, 2026
We need to focus on the basics: Harris
Newly elected Upper Lachlan Shire mayor Gregory Harris spoke to The Southern Wire after his election to the role of Mayor and said he wants council to focus on basic services.
Newly elected Upper Lachlan Shire mayor Gregory Harris wants council to focus on basic services.
Cr Harris defeated sitting mayor Paul Culhane 5-4 in Thursday’s mid-term election.
“I want council to do the core functions extremely well,” he told The Southern Wire after Thursday’s meeting ended.
Cr Harris campaigned at the 2024 local government elections as a Libertarian and believes there are too many layers of government spending too much money.
As mayor, he said he would want to understand the ‘why’ behind every dollar spent.
Cr Harris said he was approached by a fellow councillor about a month ago with the suggestion that he run for mayor.
He said he had spent the past month thinking about the suggestion and speaking with other councillors.
Speaking before Thursday’s secret ballot, former mayor Paul Culhane said he wanted the opportunity to build on what had been achieved over the past two years.
He said the next six months would be “extremely important” given the state seat of Goulburn was considered a “somewhat marginal” electorate and there was a good prospect of it attracting money in the lead-up to the State election in March 2027.
Cr Culhane also said he had been advocating for compensation from HumeLink and wanted to see it through.
He said council had a chance of securing $1 million a year for the next 33 years if HumeLink came to the party.
He said he also wanted to continue to fight to protect the amenity of the area from State Significant Developments.
Cr Culhane said he had led a turnaround in council’s reputation.
“People have faith in us,” he said.
He said people had stopped him in the street and had encouraged him to keep doing what he was doing.
“I believe I have the overwhelming support of ratepayers,” he said.
Prior to the vote, Cr Harris said Cr Culhane had done a great stabilising council, and he would like to build on the progress that had been made over the past two years.
After the result had been announced, Cr Culhane said he was disappointed, but he respected the decision of his peers.
He said he had “enormous respect” for Cr Harris.
Cr Harris again acknowledged the headway Cr Culhane had made in “reconnecting council with its people” and said he would continue working on what Cr Culhane had done.
The deputy mayoral election was also contested by two councillors – sitting deputy mayor Rob Cameron and Cr Simon Peirce.
Cr Cameron won the vote 5-4.
Cr Harris said one of his first priorities would be to visit all the towns and villages across the Upper Lachlan and to speak with as many groups and organisations as possible.
He said it was important to listen to people and to ensure “council is aligned with the community”.
Cr Harris – a software architect from Big Hill – described the Upper Lachlan region as “a little slice of heaven” and is keen to attract new people to the area.
He said securing more light industrial land and employment land would not only help attract new people to Upper Lachlan but would also give existing residents a reason to stay.
He said people were moving away from the region because of the lack of employment and educational opportunities.
Cr Harris said he was not opposed to renewable energy projects but the community had spoken and enough was enough.
“The shire has done its fair share of the hard work,” he told The Southern Wire.
He said the Crookwell area was now home to more than 50 per cent of the wind turbines in NSW and was “saturated”.
“We’ve had too much of it here ultimately,” he said.
Cr Harris said he was concerned that the wind turbines were getting bigger, with talk of new turbines being as tall as 300 metres – the same height as Sydney’s Centrepoint Tower.
He is also concerned about the requirement for a 2.5km exclusion zone around wind farms, which he said had the potential to prevent people from building on their own land.
Cr Harris acknowledged that council had become unpopular prior to the last election because of a proposed 50 per cent rate hike and a controversy over Drag Queen Storytime.
He believes council is now communicating with the community more effectively and has turned its financial position around
Cr Harris has not ruled out running as a Libertarian candidate at the next State election but said his immediate focus was on his new role as mayor.
He believes he has a “strong” relationship with all eight other councillors and has promised to brush up on council meeting procedures and to “do better next month”.
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