Cr Watson's proposed motion had orginally called for the council to issue a formal apology to police officers for "the outrageous way they have been treated by irresponsible demonstrators in recent weeks", and for councillors who may have attended a rally to make a formal apology to the community.

The motion brought to the June 23 had substantial changes. While it still asked the council to thank NSW Police, the section about councillors who may have attended rallies was removed - possibly because no councillors did.

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It was replaced with a push for the council to "condemn the NSW Greens for urging the defunding of police".

Mayor Amanda Findley ruled the addition was new business, and it was removed from the motion.

Cr Jo Gash supported the Mayor's call, as did Cr Annette Alldrick.

"I want to represent the views of my community, and this is not the motion that went out to them via the media last week," Cr Gash said.

Cr Alldrick said she had "no respect" for the motion.

"The true intention behind this motion was explained to the local media, and it caused suffering for the local Aboriginal community," she said.

Crs Greg Watson, Mitchell Pakes and Andrew Guile opposed the move. They claimed that as the motion had the same heading, and the same first point, it was not new business. They were overruled.

Cr Nina Digiglio moved that the motion should be amended to "thank all emergency service and frontline workers".

The amended motion to thank frontline workers was passed unanimously.

Cr Watson also apologised for a "media stunt" in the 80s where he appeared to burn the Aboriginal flag.

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