Andrew Thaler pictured in Queanbeyan in 2022. Photo: Claire Fenwicke.
Suspended southern NSW councillor Andrew Thaler has announced he’ll run in the Kiama byelection.
Cr Thaler was elected to Snowy Monaro Regional Council in the 2024 local government elections, despite an existing ban on him entering council premises or approaching council staff.
The controversial councillor has been suspended from council twice this year over comments he made on social media.
In May, he was found guilty of misconduct due to comments he made online and was suspended from office for three months.
He appealed the decision but lost, with the NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal (NCAT) finding he had engaged in misconduct.
In late July the NSW Office of Local Government confirmed Cr Thaler would again be suspended for three months, starting from 5 August.
Cr Thaler requested a stay of the suspension order ahead of his appeal being heard in October, but on Wednesday (20 August) the NCAT refused his request.
He said he decided to run for the seat of Kiama because he “grew up in the area and the Snowy Monaro is a tough place”.
“It’s cold, lonely and the majority of people are uninterested in its own future,” he said of his current council patch.
“Maybe after my 20 years on the Monaro, it’s time to move my family to the Shoalhaven and offer my skills to people who do care about their future, and what it will or could look like.
“I am at war with the Office of Local Government where I allege they do not exist and they have given me a second suspension from our council for telling the truth to the people, and upholding my oath of office.”
The “always independent” candidate was born in Nowra and attended Bomaderry High School.
“I have fought corruption and corrupt bureaucracy for too many years, where I realise that while you never win, you also never lose: you learn and adapt,” he said.
“I have watched the Australia I grew up in slide away, to be replaced by an unrecognisable mess of dog-eat-dog, taxation and grifters where we were once the best country in the whole world to live and raise a family.
“I despair for the future for my five children aged 16 through to eight and I fight hard to preserve and restore their rights which are being stripped away on a near daily basis.”
One of his priorities in the byelection is to have the Kiama electorate renamed to “better reflect and include the full area and people covered and served by the electorate”.
He said his other priorities included:
- Ending the “uncontrolled immigration” and getting Aussies back to work
- Confronting the reality of the costs of energy and how we are being “deceived, out-priced and ripped off”
- Opening up public forests and fire trials for public access, camping, fishing, exploring
- Getting rid of the “woke agenda out of public schooling” and letting kids be kids free from the “warped agenda of the left and off the NDIS gravy train”
- Calling for a pause on the “rampant housing build; we are losing the reason why the electorate was the choice place to live, work and play”.
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