But she dismissed calls for mediation to ease the deep bitterness on the council – those who wanted mediation “should go and seek a doctor”, she said in an interview on ABC radio.

On the future, she said: “I wanted the role to answer the community’s needs and to answer the community’s request for a change.”

She said she wanted to encourage more women “to be part of the decision-making on the council”.

She denied that her membership of the Greens would impair her work as a councillor. “I’m a country Green”, she said, and not a “city Green”.

She said her concerns were the environment which she loved “very dearly” and social justice.

Some of her opponents have criticised her overt Green allegiance and the way her victory may be used by the Greens – there was, for example, a Greens photographer in the council meeting photographing her.

On the ABC, she said she was a member of the Greens but “I have taken an oath that the community and rate-payers come first.”

She also urged people to ignore social media: “I haven’t said anything negative about anyone”, she said. “I’ve advised councillors to turn (social media) off”.

“I don’t spend my time on social media”, she said (though some of her family have campaigned for her on Facebook).

Before her election on Thursday, there was a public forum where speakers turned on “Facebook warriors”, often with real anger. They also praised her predecessor, Steve Toms.

Carol Sparks said on the ABC that she found it “humiliating and embarrassing”. It was “belittling” to bring it all out.