During yesterday's Lismore City Council December ordinary meeting, SCU dumping its art program in 2025 and adopting a new Code of Meeting Practice for this council's term proved divisive.

Within 12 months of a newly elected council, they must adopt a new Code of Meeting Practice to comply with Section 360 of the Local Government Act.

Lismore City Council staff suggested some changes now that council meetings start at 10am on the second Tuesday of each month (not including January). This was the motion put forward by Cr Battista.

The main change revolved around Public Access and how it is used on council meeting days. This was a source of contention for half of the councillors.

It was proposed that Public Access move to 9am, so it is not part of the council meeting, thus allowing councillors to move straight into the agenda. This would attempt to keep each meeting to a manageable time. Yesterday's meeting was seven hours finishing at 5:12pm.

Other restrictions were to:

• Limit the number of speakers to two (2) for and two (2) against.
• Lower the time, each speaker has to be 3 minutes (from 4).
• Have a maximum of ten speakers per meeting. This is necessary if the Council meeting is to start on time at 10am.
• Limit responses to councillor questions to one (1) minute.

Cr Guise started the debate by saying Cr Battista's motion is "Essentially to shut out the community even more from council meetings and the decisions we make."

Mayor Krieg said that a briefing on Public Access changes was held and that only "5 out of 11 councillors that were here, enjoyed the session very much." Indicating Cr Guise did not attend the briefing.

"I think we need to get with the times every other council in and around our LGA and indeed across the state, have public access not part of their meeting because meetings should be used for council business and for notices of motion."

Cr Waters spoke against the motion because it was not compulsory for councillors to attend the public access sessions. "It's a crucial opportunity for the community to directly engage with us elected officials."

Cr Rob agreed with Crs Guise and Waters in voting against the motion.

Cr Dalton-Earls said that "limiting their time was not best practice" and that the community had valuable opinions, so Public Access should be live-streamed.

Cr Dalton-Earls then put forward an amendment to livestream the Public Access and increase the time for each speaker to 4 minutes, which was accepted by Cr Battista and Cr Bing, who seconded the original motion.

Cr Rob then made a further amendment, which was not seconded.

In his right of reply, Cr Battista said he remembered a meeting during his last time in council where public access took two and a half hours before they started the meeting. "That's not the reason why we're here. I'm sorry. The reason why we're here is to make a decision."

The vote was 6/4, with Crs Dalton-Earls, Gordon, Battista, Bing, Jensen and Krieg voting for and Crs Rob, Knight-Smith, Guise and Waters against. Cr Hall was absent from the meeting.

The new Code of Meeting Practice now goes on public exhibition for 28 days. The public can leave comments for 42 days on Council's Your Say website.

The other contentious issue was a motion put forward by Cr Waters.

The motion called on Southern Cross University (SCU) to reconsider its position to discontinue its undergraduate programs in art and design, contemporary music and digital media from 2025, and that council urges SCU to reconsider and work collaboratively with stakeholders to find sustainable solutions that preserve these critical programs.

The motion included writing to Federal Ministers urging them to restore equity to the cost of Humanities degrees, plus writing to the relevant State Ministers to take urgent action to increase funding and other support for regional arts and music events and advocate to Federal Ministers to restore equity to the cost of Humanities degrees.

The motion divided the chamber.

While everyone agreed the arts are an important part of Lismore's history and community makeup, some councillors were troubled with telling a business how it should be run.

A similar motion was put forward and unanimously supported by the Ballina Council. The motion was split in Lismore.

"The creative arts are not merely an extracurricular activity or luxury. They are central to the vibrancy, diversity and resilience of Lismore and the region," Cr Waters said speaking for her motion.

Cr Jensen said she was going to support the motion, but was torn because "I don't think we should be telling business how to operate. But I do appreciate we are a creative area, and we don't only need SCU. We have a lot of vibrant, intelligent people that create things outside of using the SCU space."

Cr Jensen then put forward a foreshadowed motion that council meet with the Vice-Chancellor of SCU to understand the reason behind the decision to discontinue its undergraduate program in arts and design, contemporary music and digital media from 2025.

Cr Knight-Smith supported Cr Waters's motion and the right to advocate for the community.

Cr Gordon remembered the days in the '90s when there were over 7000 kids that went through the university, "They were a major financial presence in this town. Not only from an educational perspective, but they rented homes, and they spent their money."

He suggested that if you look at the numbers now, there are probably less than 1000 students due to the way university education has changed and the opening of the Gold Coast SCU campus.

"So, I will support it because you're asking for an explanation. But, I just think it's a slippery slope when we start telling the Vice Chancellor what they should be doing."

Cr Battista agreed with Cr Gordon about Lismore's 1990's heyday with a thriving student population, and the fact council shouldn't be telling a large organisation how to run their business. "But, in this case, we should be telling them because this will, once again, affect Lismore."

Cr Rob called SCU Lismore's biggest landlord.

The vote was a 5/5 split, with Crs Dalton-Earls, Knigh-Smith, Guise, Jensen and Waters for and Crs Gordon, Battista, Rob, Bing and Krieg against. The mayor used his casting vote to defeat the motion.

Cr Jensen's foreshadowed motion to meet with Vice-Chancellor Professor Tyrone Carlin, which was supported 8/2. Crs Dalton-Earls, Gordon, Battista, Knight-Smith, Bing, Jensen, Waters and Krieg voting for and Crs Rob and Guise against.

That was the final council meeting until February 11 2025.