Newcastle Liberal councillor Katrina Wark tries move to replace paid Sunday lifesaving shifts with volunteer patrols during surf lifesaving club upgrade debate

The original motion by Liberal councillor Jenny Barrie called for council to explore funding from government and external stakeholders to upgrade the clubs and push for a strategic plan that would be guided by Coastal Management Programs currently in development.

An amendment was successfully moved by lord mayor Nuatali Nelmes to note funding history, including council having grant applications rejected by the NSW government for Newcastle surf lifesaving club upgrades.

Liberal councillor Katrina Wark seconded the original motion, but then moved to cut the council lifeguards on a Sunday and replace the shifts with volunteer lifesavers to reduce wages.

She said the volunteers previously did patrols everyday, but council stepped in when COVID hit to patrol on Sundays.

Fellow Liberal councillor Callum Pull labelled the amendment as "crazy" before withdrawing the comment following a point of order from Labor councillor Elizabeth Adamczyk.

"If these people are working on a Sunday they well and truly deserve to get paid for it," Cr Pull said.

Cr Nelmes cautioned councillors against motions that make significant changes to council's budget and operations. She said not all surf lifesaving clubs can man all of their patrols, and COVID had proven the need for more paid jobs, not less.

"I could never be part of a campaign that would outsource or turn real jobs, real paying jobs, into volunteer jobs," she said.

Cr Wark later told The Herald she understood the amendment was out of the blue, but said it was in response to an earlier item that said council's full year revised budget for 2021/22 was a deficit of $13.5 million.

She said she would now go through the budget to look at where costs could be saved.

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