Gagging councillors is a threat to accountability and democracy

Yarra Council’s bid to gag its councillors can only be because it fears accountability, which is an insult to the democracy that elects them.

Democracy would seem to be a foreign concept to our beleaguered friends at Yarra Council.

Or, more to the point, they know what it is and it is anathema to the way they operate.

The council administration wants to gag its elected members – the people who, rightly or wrongly, were elected by ratepayers to represent them.

The council’s new code of conduct, set to be debated on Tuesday, demands councillors pass off all media inquiries to the council’s professional spinners and story-stoppers “to ensure accurate, consistent, and clear messaging”.

Councillors are not allowed to think for themselves, nor should they stand up for their residents.

They must let some unelected, overpaid staffer speak for them.

Worse, the council’s proposed social media policy says councillors must present Yarra as “effective and cohesive, regardless of differing opinions”.

Ironically, the next line says councillors must be “accurate” in all social media postings.

To portray the rabble that is Yarra Council as effective and cohesive would be a lie on par with saying Neighbours is the best television program this country has ever produced.

This is, purely and simply, a gag order.

It’s an insult to Yarra’s ratepayers to prevent councillors from speaking openly. Picture: Andrew Henshaw

It is an attempt by staff, who have no accountability to the public, to control our democratically elected representatives.

But never fear. According to this document, without any hint of irony, “nothing in the standards of conduct is intended to limit, restrict or detract from robust public debate in a democracy”.

Except the only place you’re apparently allowed such robust debate is in the council chamber, where perhaps three people over the age of 80 might hear what they have to say.

Public discussions are played out on social media and in the broader media – such as this newspaper and talkback radio.

It may well be true that most of the people on Yarra Council are mad – they last year decided to fly the “aromantic” flag above the town hall – but they were democratically elected.

Council chief executives and their lackeys are deathly afraid of councillors having their own points of view because they might be held accountable.

Not content with shoving their sometimes stupid ideas through, they then have to stop debate of said stupid ideas because it might make them look, well, stupid.

What these people need to realise is that chief executives are employed by the councillors, not the other way around.

Gagging councillors who are elected by the public turns their position into a facade.

The chief is employed not to tell the councillors what to do but to do what the councillors tell him.

Why does Yarra Council acting chief executive Chris Leivers want to control the elected members?

It is an insult to ratepayers to allow them to elect representatives who are then prevented from openly and shamelessly representing them.

It makes the position of councillor nothing more than a facade.

If I call a councillor or mayor anywhere in this city, they should be able to tell me what they believe without fear of falling foul of such ridiculous rules.

I have only ever called one mayor who refused to talk to me. She made it clear, in no uncertain terms, that she did not much like me because I had been a vocal opponent of council madness.

What I had done was hold councils accountable – and that is what it all comes back to.

Gag orders like this one at Yarra Council are designed by staff to prevent accountability to the people who compulsorily part with their hard-earned money to pay their wages.

This is the sort of thing that goes on in dictatorships.

If councillors can’t speak, then we may as well abolish them altogether and turn our councils into government departments.

Originally published as Gagging councillors is a threat to accountability and democracy