Asking for Navy to visit Port Kembla is 'super awkward', says Wollongong councillor

At Monday night's council meeting, Cr Cameron Walters put forward a motion following confusion that led to HMAS Wollongong not stopping at Port Kembla on her final voyage.

Both the Port Authority of NSW and NSW Ports said they had not been approached regarding the berthing of the ship at Port Kembla.

Read more: Guest Park fencing a plan to beat the hoons

City of Wollongong RSL Sub-branch secretary and treasurer Peter Lipscomb called the situation "very disappointing and embarrassing for the city".

Cr Walters' motion noted the problems of that attempted visit and called for council to continue to support naval vessels visiting Port Kembla.

He also wanted the general manager to write to the Port Authority of NSW "strongly supporting visits by warships to Port Kembla in general, and in particular, that council supports a visit by HMAS Sydney to Port Kembla in 2023."

Cr Walters said he brought the motion before council at the request of several members of the defence community.

"Obviously this needs to be sorted, that's why I brought it here but the Port of Port Kembla basically said 'don't bother asking, we have no appetite for this now'," Cr Walters said.

"This is just a letter, by the way. We're not asking for much tonight, just a simple letter saying we support this."

Cr Dom Figliomeni was in favour of the show of support for the visits.

"I think every port has an ability to ensure that [the Navy] are adequately serviced and have access to the infrastructure and facilities and, if as council, if we can support that I think we should definitely do everything we can to do that," Cr Figliomeni said.

Cr Janice Kershaw admitted confusion about why the motion had been brought to the meeting, noting that 18 months ago council had passed a motion saying it supported naval visits to the city - and nothing had changed since then.

Cr Gordon Bradbery was also unsure about the motion, calling it "redundant".

The strongest criticism came from Cr Mithra Cox, who found the idea of writing the letter "humiliating".

"I think we've got more important things to do than desperately write letters begging for ships to come and visit that don't want to visit," Cr Cox said.

"It's super awkward and I don't really want my name on this ... I saw this and it just looks like grandstanding and it is humiliating and it's completely unnecessary."

The motion ultimately passed, with only Greens councillors Cr Cox and Cr Cath Blakey voting against it.