A minor row has erupted over the funding for the re-election of Keith Rhoades as President of Local Government NSW.

The ballot, to be held during the LGNSW annual conference at Rosehill Gardens in Sydney on Monday 12 October, is being contested by Mr Rhoades and three other candidates, including Sydney City Council’s Christine Forster.

Ms Forster, a Liberal councillor who is best known as former PM Tony Abbott’s sister, has been quoted by the Daily Telegraph as saying that rural and regional councillors would be “shocked” to learn that Ms Moore was funding his re-election campaign.

Mr Rhoades told Government News that the article was a beat-up. “Read it all the way through. The headline says she is funding my campaign, but at the end of the article it says that the extent of her financial involvement is less than $200, and even that amount is not from council funds.

“I am an independent councillor and I am supported by many other independents. I also receive support from many Liberal councillors opposed to the government’s amalgamation plans.”

Ms Forster is a fierce opponent of both Ms Moore and Mr Rhoades. She stood against Mr Rhoades at the last LGNSW election, losing by just 14 votes, and she is a prime mover in attempts to reduce the size of Sydney City Council’s area, and to increase the value of non-resident ratepayer votes, to unseat the popular Ms Moore.

Mr Rhoades said that Ms Forster’s real agenda is to unseat Ms Moore and become Lord Mayor of Sydney herself.

Ms Forster says a reduction in the City’s boundaries would give more attention to the city’s priority of competing for investment and jobs against other regional cities. She gives Brisbane, Shanghai and Singapore as examples – despite all these cities having large metropolitan councils.

The Daily Telegraph has been running an ongoing campaign against Ms Moore, who is disparagingly referred to in the article as the “self-proclaimed queen of inner city politics” (a Google search finds no such self-proclamation, though former Prime Minister Paul Keating did once call her the “queen of grog” for favouring relaxed licensing laws).

The Daily Telegraph, well known for its partisanship, has also run articles critical of Mr Rhoades. Its biggest criticism of him is that he receives six separate incomes from his various local government activities, even though his total income from all these sources (just over $260,000) is published in the LGNSW annual report.

Mr Rhoades, a former fireman, was mayor of Coffs Harbour from 2004 to 2012, and is a former President of Local Government Association of NSW. He has been President of Local Government NSW since it was formed in 2013 by the amalgamation of the Local Government Association of NSW and the Shires Association of NSW.

LGNSW represents all 152 local government areas in NSW, the Aboriginal Land Council of NSW, and 12 special purpose councils, mostly county councils responsible for such matters as weed control.

Votes for the President and board of LGNSW are apportioned half to metropolitan councils and half to rural and regional councils. Within each area, votes are weighted by the population of the local government area, with all councils receiving at least one vote.

The system, a condition of the 2013 merger, heavily favours representation from rural and regional councils, Mr Rhoades’ power base. He is strongly against forced council amalgamations, and is campaigning on that basis.

The NSW Government’s report on council amalgamations will be delivered on 16 October, just after the LGNSW annual meeting, but will not be made public until it has been considered by cabinet. It is expected to recommend a number of council amalgamations, based on the government’s ‘Fit for the Future’ guidelines.