Councillor James Hansen under scrutiny for failing to attend committee meetings

A controversial Fraser Coast councillor has come under scrutiny again, this time because of a complaint that he has failed to attend committee meetings.

Fraser Coast Councillor James Hansen.

A councillor has been accused of inappropriate conduct after he allegedly failed to attend meetings of external committees to which he had been appointed.

The accusations levelled at councillor James Hansen were under scrutiny during a discussion at Fraser Coast Regional Council’s Wednesday meeting.

The outcome of the matter was not decided on Wednesday, with councillors electing to defer the matter for further investigation.

According to council documents, MacDonnells Law was engaged to carry out an investigation and prepare a report for the council’s consideration.

The investigation was quoted to cost $4500.

According to the council documents the Office of the Independent Assessor referred an allegation against Mr Hansen on March 17, 2023, to the council to be dealt with.

The complaint alleged Mr Hansen had breached the Local Government Act when he “failed to carry out his responsibilities conscientiously and in the best interests of council and the community by not attending meetings of external committees that he had been appointed to”.

“Councillor Hansen’s conduct may have breached a behaviour standard in the Code of Conduct for Councillors in Queensland,” the documents read.

The committees were the Mary River Catchment Co-Ordinating committee and the Regional Arts Development Fund advisory committee.

It was alleged that Mr Hansen had failed to attend committee meetings for MRCCC and had failed to engage with the organisation with respect to catchment management.

In respects to the arts committee, it was alleged that he had not attended a meeting since June 2021 and the committee had also failed to receive any completed grant assessments from Mr Hansen through the Smarty Grants program since that time.

Mr Hansen said he had sent proxies to meetings when he couldn’t attend and had engaged with the group as much as possible.

Councillor James Hansen.

He resigned from the arts committee on April 23, 2023, according to council documents.

During the meeting on Wednesday, Mr Hansen said he regularly reviewed the Smarty Grants program.

Mr Hansen said the Mary River committee meetings fell on a Wednesday which clashed with council duties.

There had been only one meeting on the Fraser Coast, with others being held in Gympie or the Sunshine Coast.

Mr Hansen had been out of the state for the meeting that was held on the Fraser Coast.

Being unvaccinated for Covid had also interfered with his capacity to attend meetings, the report read.

The matter will be considered again by the councillors at a later date.

It is not the first time Mr Hansen’s behaviour has come under scrutiny.

In January he was reprimanded for a comment he had made on council social media post under a photo of what appears to be one of the council’s parks and gardens employees.

“ … looks like he’s never done a day’s work in his like (sic),” his comment read.

Mr Hansen has since claimed he made the comment as a “joke” because the worker, who he believed was an actor and not an actual council employee, appeared to be wearing clean clothes.

He also came under fire in March after he posted what appeared to be a racial slur on his own Facebook page.

On Thursday, March 2, 2023, a social media post from the Division 1 councillor was sent to the Fraser Coast Chronicle. It featured a photo of a sheep with the words “got me a new blackie, her name is n-----”.

The Chronicle contacted Mr Hansen for comment at the time and he responded “it’s a sheep ffs”.

It is understood that matter is still being investigated.