Adelaide City councillor Phil Martin complains about Facebook post by political rival Mary Couros
A long-running feud between two city councillors has flared again, with a top law firm brought in to investigate yet another official complaint between them.
SA News
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A city councillor was “grossly offended” by a social media post he claimed linked him to a campaign against domestic violence by the national lobby group, Our Watch.
North Adelaide ward councillor Mary Couros posted a photograph of a bus shelter advertisement for “Doing Nothing Causes Harm” on Facebook the morning before a council meeting voted to order political rival Cr Phil Martin to publicly apologise for “being disrespectful” to Lord Mayor Sandy Verschoor and council chief executive Clare Mockler.
“How fitting I see this advertised at a bus shelter this morning with the code of conduct on the agenda,” said the post by Ms Couros.
“Let this be a message to all … do something because doing nothing does harm.”
Ms Couros then named five male councillors she said were continuing to “support women on council and, in particular, respecting the women on council”. Mr Martin was omitted from the list.
In a code of conduct complaint lodged against Ms Couros, Mr Martin said her Facebook post last September had “conflated” the code of conduct findings against him.
“ … the Facebook post conflated the findings of the code of conduct against me with Councillor Couros’ assertion that I had been found to have been ‘disrespectful to two women’ and that required ‘doing something’ when ‘women (are) being disrespected’ because ‘doing nothing doing does harm’, consistent with the goals of an organisation whose details are publicly displayed in North Adelaide and other places throughout Australia,” he said.
“I contend Councillor Couros’ conflating her Facebook post with ‘disrespecting of women’ as detailed by Our Watch was a deliberate and malicious attempt at character assassination by a publicly elected official acting without basis and without integrity.”
Mr Martin said the code of conduct findings against him involving Ms Verschoor and Ms Mockler “concluded that there had been no harassment or bullying but, most especially, there was no gender or other discrimination”.
Mr Martin also complained about a public comment on Ms Couros’ post, which he claimed made it falsely appear that he was involved in “issues of staff intimidation, bullying, misogyny and racism which had gone unpunished for too long”.
The complaint was investigated by law firm Minter Ellison, with interviews conducted with Mr Martin and Ms Couros.
Mr Martin told Minter Ellison he had found the Facebook post “grossly offensive” while Ms Couros said she did not intend to make any “offensive implications”.
“Councillor Couros noted, in hindsight, she would not have posted the Facebook post and expressed regret for doing so (and was apologetic for the offensive inference),” said its report.
Cr Couros subsequently deleted the post and the comment by the member of the public, who she described as a “passionate ratepayer and serial commenter”.
Minter Ellison upheld the complaint against Ms Couros, the latest of several lodged between the pair since the last council elections in 2018.
Councillors will discuss its report on Tuesday night.
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