![\"Councillor](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/4JOU0E1_Councillor_Lisa_Austin_SUPPLIED_jpg.jpeg\")
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\nCouncillor Lisa Austin.
\nPhoto: Supplied\n<\/p>\n
A Nelson city councillor has accused another councillor of trying to oust her from council despite the Auditor-General deciding not to prosecute over her financial interests.<\/p>\n
Councillor Lisa Austin and her husband co-own Austin Transport Tippers, which has dealings with two of the council’s contractors but no direct contracts with the council.<\/p>\n
The Local Authorities (Members’ Interests) Act prevents people from being elected or appointed as a member of a local authority if they are “concerned or interested” – either personally or through a spouse or partner – in contracts or subcontracts from that authority totalling more than $25,000 per year unless the Auditor-General grants an exemption.<\/p>\n
The Auditor-General declined to give Austin an exemption but also said it would not prosecute her<\/a> as it would not be in the public interest<\/a>.<\/p>\n Mayor Nick Smith welcomed the decision in May and said it would let councillor Austin to get on with her job.<\/p>\n \nMayor Nick Smith welcomed the decision in May to let Lisa Austin get on with her job. She had not participated in some council meetings because of the issue.<\/p>\n On Friday, Austin said she had become aware that councillor Aaron Stallard was questioning her right to stay in her role and had raised his concerns with the Mayor.<\/p>\n “I have no issue at all with returning to council, I don’t believe there is an issue. I was voted in, and I should remain in my job. I have done absolutely nothing wrong,” she said.<\/p>\n Austin said her family trucking business had no direct council contracts nor any sub-contracts.<\/p>\n “We are basically a service provider who gets hooked up by an hourly rate. We are like a wood delivery service, who might drop some wood off and then send out an invoice,” she said.<\/p>\n Austin believed that the Auditor-General’s decision had resolved the matter.<\/p>\n Stallard was not available for comment and directed inquiries to Smith.<\/p>\n Smith said the council was working hard to resolve the issue.<\/p>\n “The matters are legally privileged and will be discussed in the confidential section of an audit risk and finance committee extraordinary meeting next Thursday 4 June,” he said.<\/p>\n “We are all working together – staff and councillors – to get a solution that if possible avoids a by-election.”<\/p>\n He said Stallard had assured him that he was not trying to oust Austin.<\/p>\n “Councillor Stallard is responsibly performing his role as a councillor in seeking to understand and mitigate the risk that this issue brings to the council organisation, as we all are,” he said.<\/p>\n![\"Nelson](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/4KL1PEN_Nick_Smith_1_scaled_jpg.jpeg\")
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\nPhoto: LDR \/ Max Frethey\n<\/p>\n