Many of you may have already tuned in to watch the Banyule Council meeting to see councillors vote on the unsolicited proposal and sale of Rosanna Library land to Woolworths. (see link to meeting below)
What transpired was completely unexpected.
Two speakers made allegations of bullying against unknown objector/s to the Woolworths partnership. Council had then provided them with an opportunity to speak to the meeting with anonymity. The circumstances that led to these allegations are still unknown (according to sources no evidence of the alleged bullying was provided to council or councillors).
It is now known that a number of earlier complaints (detailed below) were made by objectors to the Woolworths partnership. These persons were not afforded the same offer of anonymity to enable them to speak. The serious allegations include:
- A councillor’s aggression, antagonism, intimidation and misogyny towards an objector.
- The behaviour of a DELWP employee including bullying, intimidation and threats in relation to this development (and another in Rosanna) on multiple online platforms towards objectors.
- Reports to councillors about the above behaviours impacting them and others and the distress caused.
- Another report of councillor misogyny (it is unknown whether the incidents are related).
It is understood that formal complaints were lodged with the council and government departments respectively.
It is not the intention of this post to lay any weight to these allegations, nor is it the intention to take away power from those making any of the allegations. However, it does seem appropriate that council treat all allegations with sensitivity, impartiality and confidentiality.
In this respect, inflammatory comments made by Cr Alison Champion (Sherbourne Ward) and Cr Tom Melican (Ibbott Ward) during the council meeting seem to conflict with the confidential nature of these submitters and information obtained through their role as councillors. A choice was made to air (with some voracity) only the anonymous allegations of those supporting the Woolworths partnership.
Cr Alison Champion states 'I am going to comment on this item, and I am not going to talk about the project’ (Rosanna Library sale) and later in the meeting ‘I’m going to speak to the item, and it doesn’t relate to the project at all!’ (Cartmell St sale) and is then observed to disparage speakers and residents. This is outside the scope of what our councillors are elected to do and contradicts both the Councillor Code of Conduct and the Governance Rules. (In relation to Cartmell St, Cr Champion crassly comments on residents having a hard time connecting through COVID. ‘It’s easy!’ says the councillor, amongst other flippant and self-congratulatory comments.) It has been suggested, that Cr Champion’s continual “warped wisdom” may be best left to her sales pitch as a real estate agent.
A reference to Cr Champion's bullying commentary has also been witnessed in social media posts and was perceived to be inciting discord in the community and fuelling unsubstantiated bullying allegations.
Other speakers felt that they were unnecessarily and wrongly targeted by the verbal lashing of both councillors for allegations of bullying that was absurdly suggested by Cr Champion to be the ‘culture’ of protesting against the Woolworths partnership. It was widely perceived that the sole intention of Councillor Champion's and Councillor Melican's comments was to disparage and diminish the voices of the objectors into silence, and was a misuse of power.
Banyule Councillor Code of Conduct also refers to this behaviour with the following:
A Councillor must ...
’treat members of the public with dignity, fairness, objectivity, courtesy and respect’
And will;
‘Avoid blame and comments which are offensive or derogatory’
‘Debate issues without resorting to personal acrimony or insult’
https://www.banyule.vic.gov.au/About-us/Documents/Councillor-conduct
and the Governance Rules prompt ALL councillors to call for a point of order based on
‘a Councillor who is not conducting themselves in accordance with the Councillor Code of Conduct;’
‘debate that is irrelevant to the matter under consideration;’
‘a matter that is outside the powers of Council;’
The public expects and deserves councillors that set an exemplary example in their public behaviour, rather than creating acrimony and division in the community.
With a Woolworths executive claiming they are ‘particularly adept at finding and putting together local champions and community groups to get behind and back our projects’ – we wonder if this was inadvertently literal and perhaps, we’ll discover Cr Champion has political aspirations that may attract Woolworths donations… and unsolicited proposals.
Stay tuned for the analysis on council’s decision to sell off Rosanna Library land and we’ll identify another anonymous submission that may have gone unnoticed.
Complaints regarding councillor behaviour can be made to:
The Local Government Inspectorate - https://www.lgi.vic.gov.au/make-complaint-local-government-inspectorate
and
The Victorian Ombudsman - https://www.ombudsman.vic.gov.au/complaints/
*To all those that may be experiencing bullying, please take action to stop the behaviour and seek help for your mental health. This may include talking to police and / or a counsellor.
Headspace 1800 650 890 headspace.org.au
Lifeline 13 11 14 lifeline.org.au
Council meeting link: https://www.banyule.vic.gov.au/About-us/Councillors-and-Council-meetings/Council-meetings/Minutes-agendas/2021/20-September-Ordinary-Council-meeting
To sign the petition to parliament against local councils accepting Unsolicited Proposals such as this one:
‘Power, money and influence of private developers will usurp the democratic process and interests of the public.’