Gavin Morris lashes council spending in heated mayoral by-election pitch on Newcastle radio

16 February 2026

newy.com.au – Gavin Morris delivered a passionate spray on the Tanya and Steve show on Monday morning, saying he had “a fire in my belly” as he criticised council spending and urged as an “uprising” of “Novocastrians” to “take back our city”.

Morris told the hosts he could feel a shift in the community: “I am connected to this community and what has happened over the weekend, you can feel this uprising occuring, Novocastrians have had absolutely enough, and I am one of them.”

He presented his bid as a personal gamble, saying: “right now i’m taking a huge gamble, I have nothing, I have no job, I have no income, I have one property, I have a mortgage of $300,000, i’ve got Children,” and spoke about struggling with day-to-day costs. “Every single time the council rates show up I shudder, every utility, every single bill,” he said.

Morris said it was “really tough to watch the direction of the city”, saying that residents were being left behind while major projects were pursued. “We’ve had enough of it, these high end developments, millions of dollars being spent,” he said.

He said “a skate park that was said it will cost $1.6m million dollars”, questioned spending on “$40m on an ocean baths that is going to be hit by an east coast low”, and criticised “$20m on a toilet block on the foreshore”.

He said there was frustration every day getting around Newcastle with a family, telling the hosts: “Do they know what it’s like to pack up the kids, get through this dysfunctional city,” before listing a number of roads he said were clogged. “Look you can’t get down Wharf Road, 30km/h hour, Hunter St is a bloody nightmare, King St is always blocked up,” he said.

“Give me $100m and i’ll take it back out into the 4 wards and deliver it to where the people live,” Morris said, arguing the money should be redirected to suburban priorities. “We’re missing out, we are suffering, there are so many problems here that are going on and it needs to stop, and thats why i’ve lost my marbles.”

He said his focus would be “putting back the local into local government”, and described the Lord Mayor’s role as “the conduit between the council and the community”. Morris also stressed the importance of senior management, saying “the CEO gets paid a lot of money and I have to work closely with the CEO”, and calling the CEO “the absolute genius”, “decyphering and working out everything”.

Morris warned: “change is very difficult, because as Ross Kerridge discovered he doesn’t have the numbers”.

He pitched his bid as a longer fight rather than a quick fix, saying: “This is the beginning, i’m here for the long run, this is my home,” and adding: “i’ve got a little girl, I don’t want her changing schools.” Morris said the timeframe mattered, telling the hosts it was “not a full election term”, and that “we’ve got 2 years” to build momentum.

He also said said: “It began with Ross, he was the earthquake and we are the tsunami of novocastrians that are going to follow and take back our city and get a hold of it again and stop what’s going on, on a political level.” He argued “we’ve got these parties taking control of our city from canberra and that doesn’t seem to take into account, us.”

Morris said he was receiving complaints from residents about basic access and maintenance, including messages he quoted as: “I can’t get down my footpath in my wheelchair” and “i’ve got a pram but I cant get down”. He also spoke about the city’s outer areas, pointing to “The swimming pool out towards beresfield, tarro”, calling it “the forgotten part of the electorate” and saying people there had been “voting labor for 50 years but labor isn’t coming to help”.

He said he wanted to rein in “urban sprawl”, claiming: “we’ve eaten into the bushland at the end of Fletcher […] once it’s taken it’s gone for ever,” and argued for investment in “cleaning up the streets of Beaumont Street”, looking after green areas, and making local pools “beautuful and accessible for all”. Morris said people were asking him for policies and described himself as “a laser been coming up the middle”, urging listeners: “come join me as an independent”, before adding in a lighter moment: “Look I look forward to working with jeremy.”