Councillor reveals election plot for pro-development council

Councillor Steve Tucker revealed the plan after figures from the NSW Electoral Funding Authority last week showed Cr MacKenzie paid for a portion of the how-to-vote cards for eight independent councillors.

Five of those, Paul Le Mottee, John Morello, Cr Tucker, Ken Jordan and Chris Doohan - who was second on Cr MacKenzie's ticket - now sit on council.

Cr MacKenzie's disclosure form states he paid $51,000 for his own campaign, which included a third share in the cost of eight other candidates' how-to-vote cards - about $250 per candidate.

Cr Tucker said he came up with the idea for the candidates to throw their support behind Cr MacKenzie and a "pro-progress council" which "got things done" because of the previous council's procrastination on decisions.

Cr MacKenzie told the Examiner he and the other five councillors got together before the election and decided to support his case for mayor.

"We decided if I was going to stand it's not much use if you can't get things done," he said.

"We needed like-minded people on council that would get rid of the debt and make Port Stephens Council prosper."

Other councillors, including Geoff Dingle and John Nell, have said they were not surprised by the revelation, having seen similarities in the how-to-vote cards at the election. They said the actions were questionable and misled Port Stephens voters. The mayor and the five councillors have denied any wrongdoing and said Port Stephens has prospered as a result of the election.

"Bruce MacKenzie contributed one third of the cost of the how-to-vote cards handed out by me on election day but that means I contributed two thirds of the cost . . . because two thirds of the ticket explained to people how to vote for Paul Le Mottee to become a councillor and the other one third explained to people how to vote for . . . mayor," Cr LeMottee said.

"I contributed to his campaign and not the other way around."

Cr Dingle claims since the election the five councillors and the mayor had formed a voting block to push controversial development applications through, some against staff recommendations. But the councillors say they are just "like minded" and even they do not always agree.

"To be 100 per cent honest Bruce and I have had several heated debates where we don't see eye to eye," Cr Jordan said.

"We are also big enough to move on if we win or lose on the floor of council."

Cr Nell said while the five did vote similarly on a lot of topics he stopped short of saying they voted in a block. However, he said the local government electoral process as a whole needed to be reviewed by the State Government to help create more transparency and stop the cross-funding and the complexities of the preferential system.