Shock plan to get ratepayers to foot councillors’ defamation bills
Logan councillors are considering getting ratepayers to foot their defamation legal bills, drawing sharp criticism after Gold Coast Mayor Tom Tate’s failed reimbursement request this week.
Logan ratepayers could soon be on the hook if councillors are awarded the right to launch legal proceedings if they believe they have been defamed for doing their job.
Mayor Jon Raven raised the issue last week during a City Governance Committee meeting, arguing councillors should not have to pay to launch defamation action when acting as official spokespeople for the city, especially if they are unfairly attacked online or in public.
“This isn’t about parking or office supplies — it’s about protecting councillors who are doing their job but get attacked unfairly,” Cr Raven told the committee.
“If there was any other cost to do my job — if I drove into the city for half an hour because I had to attend a meeting to advocate for Rochedale Rd for instance — then council would reimburse me for that cost.
“But if in doing our advocacy for Rochedale Rd I was accused of being corrupt, or a campaign was waged against me that was completely unfair and uncalled for and started from me having a resolution of council that directed me trying to take that work – that feels like it is a cost incurred to me for doing my work.”
The discussion came as the council committee considered overhauling a range of outdated policies, including a new Insurance and Indemnity for Councillors Policy that replaces several older rules.
Under the proposed Insurance and Indemnity for Councillors Policy, councillors would still not automatically be reimbursed if they chose to launch a case, but council could consider requests on a case-by-case basis.
Staff and advisers would remain uncovered for defamation claims.
But former mayor Darren Power slammed the idea of ratepayers footing councillors’ legal bills.
“Twenty-seven years as a councillor or mayor and I never asked for a cent for raffle tickets or prizes,” he said.
“Councillors get huge salaries and think they’re royalty.
“This never passes the pub test. It’s time for politicians to step up and stop the pigs-in-the-trough approach.”
Cr Raven’s proposal has not yet been voted on and has been referred to Logan council’s director organisational services Robert Strachan.
During the meeting Mr Strachan said such a policy would not be advisable.
“Keeping in mind it’s not council that’s being defamed, it’s the individual, so any action for defamation would be basically privately funding litigation,” Mr Strachan said.
“You potentially could mount an argument that it ties back to your role as a mayor or councillor.
“If we were to go down that pathway — and once again I would advise against it — we have to be very careful to be able to justify the use of ratepayers’ money to basically bring on action for defamation.
“That’s something that would need to be carefully considered and would have to be brought back to council before any decision was made under this particular policy as to whether to support the mayor or councillor in taking action for defamation.”
Mr Strachan said other councils had been criticised for funding defamation cases and warned the move could open the door for personal legal battles at taxpayers’ expense.
He was referring to Gold Coast Mayor Tom Tate, who sparked this week’s Logan debate after asking his councillors to reimburse him for legal costs from a personal defamation case he filed against Gold Coast councillor Peter Young and the ABC in 2017.
Gold Coast councillors rejected the request, ruling that such claims must be self-funded unless prior council approval is given.
The Logan committee voted on the new Logan policies, including the Insurance and Indemnity for Councillors Policy, was carried unanimously 8 to 0.
The final vote will be put to the full council on December 10.
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Originally published as Shock plan to get ratepayers to foot councillors’ defamation bills
