Forster calls for NYE party shake-up
Image: Photo: City of Sydney
City of Sydney Councillor Christine Forster will call for changes to be made to the way the City’s iconic New Year’s Eve Party is organised.
In a draft Notice of Motion seen by City News, the Liberal Councillor calls on her colleagues to agree to changes which, if passed by Council, would see Councillors have a greater role in inviting guests to the party, which is currently an invitation-only affair at the behest of Sydney Lord Mayor Clover Moore.
The draft motion notes that the Lord Mayor currently invites around a thousand guests per annum to the party, which is held at the Sydney Opera House forecourt.
It says in part: “It is resolved that Council [works] to ensure that the invitation list to the City of Sydney’s New Year’s Eve Party acknowledges and includes the civic, business, intellectual and cultural leaders who contribute to the social, economic and cultural fabric of the City.”
It goes on to propose that each of the ten Councillors “nominate 20 civic, business, intellectual and/or cultural leaders from the City of Sydney community, and their partners, to be invited”.
The 20 nominees would then be submitted to City of Sydney CEO Monica Barone, who would allocate at least fifteen nominees per Councillor.
With each nominee able to bring a guest, this would bring the number of Councillor-endorsed attendees to 300.
In the event of people being nominated by more than one Councillor, additional invitations would be drawn from the Councillors’ nominee lists “on an even-distribution basis”.
Asked about the reasons for her proposal, Ms Forster claimed the New Year’s Eve party had become “something of a Clover Moore supporters’ party, largely made up of the same familiar faces you see supporting Clover at the polling booths come election-time”.
“I just don’t feel it’s appropriate for such an event, which is funded by ratepayers, to be used as a reward for people loyal to the Lord Mayor,” she said.
“It should be a non-partisan event.”
Ms Forster denied that she wanted the party to become a gathering for the City’s corporate denizens.
“I’m thinking more along the lines of community activists and charity workers – people who really contribute to our city,” she said.
Ms Forster said she would table the Notice of Motion at the next Council meeting on February 25.
