Fraser Coast councillor James Hansen in trouble again

A controversial councillor in trouble twice already this year, has now been reprimanded for not attending a single committee meeting in years, despite being required to as part of his job.

Fraser Coast councillor James Hansen.

A controversial councillor reprimanded for inappropriate behaviour over a Facebook post earlier this year has again been censured by his colleagues, this time for not attending meetings.

Fraser Coast councillor James Hansen’s failure to attend committee meetings came under scrutiny at May’s council meeting, but the matter was adjourned so more information could be provided to his fellow councillors.

At the June meeting, the majority those colleagues voted that Mr Hansen had acted inappropriately when he did not attend external committee meetings in his role as a councillor.

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 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 he 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”.

The committees included the Mary River Catchment Co-ordinating Committee and the Regional Arts Development Fund advisory committee.

It was alleged Mr Hansen failed to attend MRCCC committee meetings and did not engage with the organisation with respect to catchment management.

Fraser Coast councillor for Division 1 James Hansen

In respects to the arts committee, it was alleged Mr Hansen had not attended a meeting since June 2021 and the committee had also failed to receive any completed grant assessments from him 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.

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

It was decided that though Mr Hansen had engaged in inappropriate conduct, no action would be taken against him.

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

In January he was reprimanded for a comment he made on a council social media post under a photo of what appeared to be a council parks and gardens employee.

“ … 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.