Jack Dempsey, Steve Johnston hit out at councillor watchdog, OIA

Bundaberg council leaders have taken aim at the State Government’s councillor watchdog - the OIC - as part of an inquiry into the body, claiming it is unjust, inconsistent and open to abuse. Read what they said:

The Qld councillor watchdog has come under fire from senior Bundaberg leaders who have accused it of inconsistency and of sending “test” cases to the tribunal, a claim rejected outright by the body.

The claims were among several raised by Bundaberg Mayor and Independent federal election candidate Jack Dempsey and council CEO Steve Johnston as part of a state inquiry into the performance of the Office of the Independent Assessor.

The OIA was set up to investigate misconduct complaints against local government mayors and councillors and to prosecute those complaints in the Councillor Conduct Tribunal.

An inquiry was launched in October 2021 after the OIA came under fire for its handling of several complaints involving Queensland councils.

Those included a claim the OIA was threatening councillors’ free speech amid revelations it was investigating Barcaldine Mayor Sean Dillon after he questioned the Covid-19 rollout in his community during a public meeting.

The complaint against Mr Dillon was ultimately dismissed by the OIA.

Bundaberg Mayor Jack Dempsey (left) and council CEO Steve Johnston (right) have criticised the state government’s Office of the Independent Assessor (headed by Kathleen Florian, centre) as part of an inquiry into the watchdog, saying it is inconsistent and harming natural justice.

In a March public hearing as part of the inquiry, Mr Dempsey accused the OIA of sending “test” cases to the tribunal in an effort to get legal precedent.

“I believe the backlog at the (Councillor Conduct) tribunal … and QCAT exists largely because the OIA … is testing the law to get a ruling which can then be applied to subsequent cases and to continuously keep testing what I believe is inadequate legislation,” Mr Dempsey told the hearing.

An OIA spokeswoman rejected the claim.

“It is wrong to say the OIA sends matters to the CCT (Councillor Conduct Tribunal) that don’t meet the threshold,” she said.

“All alleged misconduct matters must raise a reasonable satisfaction of misconduct before any referral to the CCT.”

She said the OIA had been working with the inquiry since it launched to identify possible reform to improve the system.

“The councillor conduct framework is new legislation and there are parts that work well and parts where fine tuning would help,” she said.

Mr Dempsey also urged the committee to make recommendations which would stop the OIA’s “intrusion into social media management”.

He told the inquiry he had deleted a comment on his Facebook page and blocked the poster as it was “irrelevant to the topic and the individual was also trashing me on other Facebook forums” and “actively colluding … with one of my political opponents”.

The inquiry was launched in late 2021 after the OIA came under fire over its handling of several complaints, including one against Barcaldine Mayor Sean Dillon, which was ultimately dismissed. Picture: Liam Kidston

He said a complaint lodged over the deleted comment was “only dismissed on a technicality” and the “OIA warned me that relevance was not a reason for councillors to hide or delete comments”.

“They said that the Human Rights Act overrides a councillor’s right to manage content on their own Facebook page,” Mr Dempsey said.

His comments follow a submission to the inquiry raising several concerns about the OIA’s actions.

Other concerns were that the OIA‘s complaints process was open to abuse; that it failed to deal with vexatious complaints properly; that natural justice was being compromised by the ability of complainants to publicly disclose allegations; and that publication of dismissed complaints served ”no public benefit” and should be stopped.

Bundaberg council CEO Steve Johnston told the inquiry into the OIC that almost 100 complaints had been made against councillors in the past three years, with all but two dismissed.

In a separate submission Mr Johnston said the council has had almost 100 complaints made in the three years since the OIA was created.

All but two had been dismissed, he said.

Mr Johnston said there was “room for substantial improvement” in the OIA’s process.

He was critical of instances when the OIA bypassed the CEO and contacted council staff directly as part of an investigation.

Mr Johnston said he did not accept the OIA’s defence that keeping senior management at arms length “may be in the best interests” of the investigation.

“I don‘t accept that reasoning, and it potentially undermines the role of the CEO in managing the whole organisation,” Mr Johnston said.

The OIA itself has suggested more than a dozen recommendations on how to improve the system as part of the inquiry.

These included developing a new inappropriate conduct scheme, giving the OIA the discretion not to deal with some complaints, and review of the Code of Conduct for Councillors and Local Government Act to explore if the implied right to political expression might limit legislative powers.

A source told NewsCorp the body was initially established to handle 160 complaints each year, but received that total in its first 11 days.

Only 4 per cent of complaints ever made it to the tribunal.