Kylie Lang: Ipswich City Council media gag attempt on mayor is absolute garbage

When someone is prevented from talking to the media, you immediately wonder what is being kept secret. What could be so damaging to a reputation or an institution that a person is effectively gagged from speaking?

Ipswich Mayor Teresa Harding. Picture: Grace Koo

When someone is prevented from talking to the media, you immediately wonder what is being kept secret. What could be so damaging to a reputation or an institution that a person is effectively gagged from speaking?

The very suggestion of such a decree raises red flags – even if it never eventuates.

It was alarming to learn, in January this year, that a group of Ipswich City councillors was trying to restrict the public comments of mayor Teresa Harding.

Six of the nine councillors, led by Ms Harding’s political rival and Labor stalwart Paul Tully, tabled a motion to stop her speaking to the media about major issues.

She would also not be permitted to put out press releases.

It came after a bid last year by the same people to remove the LNP-aligned Ms Harding as chair of the Local Disaster Management Group.

But on Thursday, the councillors voted to take the January motion off the table in favour of making changes to “media policy” at a later date.

Shouldn’t the focus be on transparency in government and doing what is best for the people of Ipswich, rather than responding in the interests of image control? Shouldn’t the policy, if there must be one in the first place, be to address issues openly and accurately to foster greater public trust in leadership?

Ipswich City councillor Paul Tully.

Theoretically, yes, but in practice, perception is paramount to far too many politicians.

The Palaszczuk government didn’t hire hundreds of spin doctors in its dying final two years for fun.

Ms Harding, mayor since 2020 and re-elected for another four years in 2024, believes the motion was retribution for her criticism of “integrity failures” that previously existed in Ipswich and resulted in the entire council being sacked by the state government in 2018.

Who could forget that tumultuous time … covered with deserving rigour by the media, in particular The Courier-Mail.

In 2019 long-serving mayor Paul Pisasale was sensationally convicted of extortion and jailed.

His successor Andrew Antoniolli, now a councillor again, was found guilty of fraud-related offences but was acquitted on appeal in 2020.

Several city officials were also charged.

Mr Tully, who was not accused of wrongdoing, was among those who lost his job in the 2018 clean out.

Then in 2022, after being reinstated to council, he tried to stop Ms Harding renaming a bridge that had been named in honour of the now disgraced Mr Pisasale.

It’s fair to say Ms Harding and Mr Tully do not sing from the same hymn sheet.

But that doesn’t give Mr Tully – or anyone, of any political persuasion – permission to gag the mayor.

For his part, Mr Tully says this was never his intention.

He has claimed Ms Harding has an “ongoing vendetta” against him and that he was merely trying to clarify the roles of committee chairs.

Mr Tully’s motion would have allowed the heads of the council’s five committees, of which he chairs two, to speak on behalf of council.

On Thursday, with the motion now a seeming non-event, he said he was confident any changes to the media policy – and any procedures associated with it – would “ensure equitable application of the policy and confirm the existing right of the mayor to be the spokesperson on identified major matters”.

Disgraced former Ipswich Mayor Paul Pisasale. AAP Image/Dave Hunt

Ms Harding’s right, as mayor, to be the spokesperson should never have been called into question or require confirmation.

Local Government Minister Ann Leahy said this week: “Ipswich residents expect the democratically elected mayor to be the spokesperson for their council.”

Griffith University political scientist Paul Williams has previously said: “In a Western liberal democracy cabinet like Australia, a mayor should have the right to speak on any matter under their local jurisdiction.”

Damn straight.

All I can think is what a waste of council time – and ratepayer dollars – this has been.

Surely, Ipswich has greater problems to focus on than who will face the media or put out press releases.

It’s often said that council’s core purpose is to fix local roads, keep rates down and collect rubbish.

In Ipswich, the “roads, rates and rubbish” mantra takes on a disappointing slant.

The good people of Ipswich deserve better than this garbage.

Kylie Lang is Associate Editor of The Courier-Mail
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