Thousands of dollars will be spent to send all ten Dubbo Regional councillors to the Local Government NSW Annual Conference next month.
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The LGNSW Annual Conference will be held in Sydney at the Hyatt Regency Hotel from December 4 to 6.
As well as mayor Ben Shields, councillors Vicki Etheridge, Stephen Lawrence and Greg Mohr have been chosen as Dubbo’s representatives.
However, the four delegates are not the only representatives who will be attending.
Councillor Kevin Parker has been nominated as the alternative, and councillors Jane Diffey, David Grant, Dayne Gumley, Anne Jones and John Ryan will attend as observers.
The registration fee for the event which costs from $899, as well as the accommodation, travel and meal expenses for the councillors will all be covered by the ratepayers.
Cr Shields said the conference was “vital” for the councillors to understand the local government industry and the decisions they were making for the community.
“You do that by going along and having councillors from all over the state of NSW in one big room to discuss what’s happening in their council areas and look at things that are happening in their areas that could potentially happen in this area,” he said.
“It is only a good thing to have councillors from right across the state talking to one another in an open environment like this conference.”
Hundreds of motions will be up for discussion at the event. As the Dubbo delegates, councillors Shields. Etheridge, Lawrence and Mohr will have the authority to vote on the issues.
There’ll also be briefing sessions on topics such as the amalgamation and good governance, as well as speeches from politicians such as Premier Gladys Berejiklian and Local Government Minister Gabrielle Upton.