Property developers in particular were in his sights due to their access to information, which could create a perception of influence.

“It’s pretty damn hard to disavow yourself if you are a developer,” Cr Kidd said. 

“It’s hard to divorce yourself from having a conflict of interest and conflict of influence.

“I’ve been on council for 20 odd years, I’ve seen it blow up where people have these perceived views.”

He said in Orange real estate agents leave the chamber if they had a conflict of interest but it could lead to a shortage of councillors.

However, although he supported a recent campaign by the Byron Bay Labor Party, commenting “Agree, agree, agree!” on the group’s Facebook meme, he said a ban would need to be on an individual council basis.

There are two real estate agents on the Orange council, Ash Brown and Chris Gryllis, who said they abide by conflict of interest rules.

Cr Gryllis has been a councillor for almost 30 years and said it would be discrimination to ban him because of his profession.

“The idea annoys me, the idea that we are crooks and I think there are crooks in every profession,” he said.

Cr Gryllis said his background in real estate has also helped the council when it came to land deals.

In cases where there was evidence of wrong doing he said people should come forward so proceedings and investigations could be made.

Cr Brown was also disappointed his profession was being targeted but said he knew he does the right thing so would not lose any sleep.

“All I know from my point of view, I’m very conscious of anything that is a conflict of interest and I leave the chamber, I always err on the side of caution and leave the room,” he said.