Should there be politics in local government? That question is raised at every local council election.

Last night, the monthly Lismore City Council meeting turned political when Councillor (Cr) Adam Guise criticised the National Party and Member for Page Kevin Hogan during the debate over the Floodplain Management Committee and the upcoming CSIRO flood mitigation study.

There were numerous points of order raised against Cr Guise when he said things like "And for me, the National Party's Kevin Hogan's idea the debate is over to silence our side", "And Kevin Hogan, the member who's been a member since 2016" and "And it's all to prop up the myth that the Nat's are here looking after our interests".

Cr Gordon took offence asking Cr Guise to "leave the soapbox at home," while Mayor Steve Krieg added, "This isn't a political debate" while Cr Guise defended his attacks saying he should be allowed to frame his arguments however he wishes.

Cr Darlene Cook then put up an urgency motion for Lismore City Council to write to the State Government and support the formation of a Northern Rivers Recovery & Reconstruction Commission. As explained on the Lismore App on Monday (NR's Reconstruction Commission petition up to 18,500 signatures) the commission would have "overarching authority to drive the reconstruction of this city" said Cr Cook.

Mayor Krieg added, "Seven weeks after the biggest flood in our history we're still fighting these processes, the sooner we get a commission to get through that the better we'll be."

Those councillors that spoke referenced the slow bureaucratic process that has hampered our recovery so far, examples like grants and how difficult they are to apply for as well as when they get deposited into bank accounts plus housing short, medium and long term, acquiring land, building new houses, road reconstruction and the community infrastructure that needs to be rebuilt.

The vote was 10 in favour with Cr Rob against.

As part of the reestablishment of the Floodplain Management Committee, the CSIRO study was the subject of another swipe by Cr Guise as he said, "To hand over to the National Party and their $10 million fund to come up with bizarre engineering, farcical engineering solutions".

The legitimacy of the CSIRO as an organisation and its "respected all over the world" commonwealth scientists was defended by Cr Rob and Cr Gordon with both arguing that no one knows what the results will be because the study hasn't been completed so it could be a combination of engineering and nature-based solutions, "we just don't know".

What we do know is that councillors voted unanimously to reactivate the Floodplain Management Committee, push to hear what the terms of reference are from the CSIRO study and have a representative or representatives to have local input into the study.

The Lismore Cup will be run with no gazetted half-day public holiday again following on from the 2021 Lismore Cup when the holiday was cancelled due to COVID-19 as the event was run behind closed doors.

The debate was over animal cruelty, gambling, excessive alcohol consumption and whether Lismore businesses can afford to pay their staff double-time this soon after a natural disaster.

Only Crs Krieg, Bing, Hall and Gordon voted for the holiday while the other 8 councillors voted against it.

There was a win for our medical heroes once again when a unanimous vote meant there would still be no paid parking at the Lismore Base Hospital and surrounding streets for a further 6 months.

Cr Cook told a story where some nurses who were made homeless by the flood, turning up in borrowed scrubs to work a double shift, "We owe our front line workers," she said.

The Rates & Hardship policy was debated with all councillors wanting to administer rate and water bill relief but being hindered by the legal process that must be followed as explained last week as part of the Council's Flood Appeal closes in on $1 million story. While Crs Rob and Guise voiced their frustration at the process which means flood survivors completing applications, it is the legal process that needs to be followed. This will come back to council at the May Lismore City Council meeting.