General News
29 March, 2025
Mayor ganged up on
ALL nine Cairns regional councillors have ganged up on Mayor Amy Eden, stripping her of the exclusive personal use of mayoral adviser Gavin King.
Deputy mayor Brett Olds led the charge at Wednesday’s fortnightly meeting, moving a motion to revoke a decision to appoint two mayoral advisers on about $150,000 each a year that was made in April last year. It was backed by all nine councillors, and, while Cr Eden did not vote, she declared the decision was unanimous. The second adviser, Bree Graffland, quit earlier this year and has not been replaced. Cr Olds attacked Cr Eden for using Mr King for social media and posts on her Facebook page and helping to set up a personal website which was being used for electioneering, including her campaign colours and style, and initially with the council’s logo.
Cr Olds said the mayor had used the adviser for her own means, it had been “misused”, caused “disruption” and “confusion”.
He said Cr Eden used the advisor role to go off in a different direction to the rest of the council.
Cr Olds accused Cr Eden of being an “outlier” on a council which he believed was the most united he had been on in three terms. “If you just bring your vision into line, as I said, there’s nine people going this way and the whole organisation going this way and one person on themselves off going that way,” he said.
Cr Olds said the appointment of the advisers were never discussed properly with councillors who were of the belief they would be on the premise of budget and workshop deliberations, with the scope of the roles and the shortlist being brought back to them.
He said Mr King’s current role was not in the best interests of residents.
“The role is more shaped to the personal interests of the mayor in terms of social media, Facebook commentary and the website … the website launched last year,” he said.
Cr Eden accused her deputy and councillors of going behind her back to discuss and formulate the revocation motion.
“So, here we are today to rubber stamp the calculated collective decision of the nine councillors taken behind closed doors to redirect a valuable resource from the office of the mayor,” she said.
“In the interest of all transparency, councillors were invited to review and have input into the position description, the interview questions and also review the applicants.
“In fact, Cr Olds, who assisted me in conducting interviews, asked one of the applicants how they would go working with and reporting directly to a female mayor?”
Cr Eden said former mayor Bob Manning had two advisers during his first two terms.
She said Mr King had done a great job since he started and more recently with the visit of the Prime Minister, Olympic Games events and lobbying supermarkets to improve the stock situation during floods and the Bruce Highway closure.
It is believed Mr King will be seconded to the economic development team, be available to advise all councillors and come under the normal council structure in the chain of command to the chief executive officer.
