Hervey Bay MP Adrian Tantari claims Fraser Coast council Covid motion ‘incites’ hate

A fuming first-term MP’s extraordinary parliament tirade against his local ‘Labor hating’ council has turned personal as the community remains divided over Covid vaccine mandates. Read the fiery speech.

The rapidly declining relationship between the Fraser Coast’s state MPs and council appears to have further deteriorated with Adrian Tantari’s parliamentary lashing of local leaders.

It comes after the first-term Labor Member for Hervey Bay launched an extraordinary tirade against councillors, accusing them of failed leadership, inciting abuse and dividing the ‘safe’ community.

Video of the MP’s private members speech had been circling the internet with little engagement, likely due to its generic opening lines congratulating those who had been vaccinated and the State Government for its ‘true leadership’.

Further viewing of the clip however reveals that was just the warm up to the fiercest speech he’d made since the state election, with the MP switching gears to slam a recent majority decision of the council to support a motion flagging concerns about proposed COVID-19 vaccine mandates on local businesses and the tourism sector.

“The motion carried showed the depth to which the few Labor Government hating councillors will dive to bring disharmony and disruption to our safe community for their own personal gain,” he told parliament

“The councillors who drafted this motion have used the sick, the aged, the immune compromised and our children under 12 as their cannon fodder in the pursuit of their own agenda when especially at this time they should have been showing leadership and backing in the health of our people like other regional councils have done”.

The Fraser Coast Regional Council is not alone in flagging its concerns about the impact of the Covid mandate on regional communities.

Similar debates have taken place in Rockhampton, Mackay, Whitsundays, North Burnett and Livingstone Shire Councils.

Mr Tantari however claimed in parliament the local motion had contributed “to the sickening level of abuse towards health workers” and “further emboldened the extreme and incited abusive behaviours towards our health professionals and small business owners let alone personal threats against MPs, their families and their staff”.

“To the vast majority of the Hervey Bay community electorate – your community thanks you for seeing the importance of being vaccinated and for keeping our community safe and strong and to the Fraser Coast Regional Council ‘show the leadership you were elected for … stop dividing our safe and strong community’.”

The motion on the Fraser Coast was brought to the council’s November meeting by Division One Councillor and local dairy farmer James Hansen who has not shied away from conservative views and formerly ran for the state seat of Maryborough for Pauline Hanson’s One Nation Party, from which he has since parted ways.

While not referring to Councillor Hansen by name, Mr Tantari claimed in parliament “the councillor who moved the motion was even seen attending a rally in Hervey Bay, not in his division and putting on his Facebook that he was trying to remain anonymous, hiding in the shadows like the puppet master so he could create unrest but hide from public scrutiny”.

Mr Hansen on Monday rejected that description as “completely false”.

“I did attend (the rally) with my wife, we stood in the middle of crowd, not lurking in shadows, we spoke to three people we knew then we went home … to say I was creating unrest is insane and wrong.

“I never posted anything on my Facebook page either.”

Fraser Coast dairy farmer and councillor James Hansen.

On his pro-choice position Mr Hansen said “I’ve said so many times it’s getting boring – it’s not about the vaccine or if people choose to have it or not, it is all about the mandate and how unfair that is on people and businesses and the fact it will create a two class society and discriminate against people who choose not to have a medical procedure”.

The motion was carried 7 to three with the region’s long-time Labor aligned mayor George Seymour voting in favour along with Councillors Paul Truscott, Phil Truscott, Denis Chapman, Daniel Sanderson and David Lee.

Deputy Mayor Darren Everard and Councillors Zane O’Keefe and David Lewis voted against.

Councillor Jade Wellings did not vote on the motion as she declared a conflict of interest due to her family’s financial ties to businesses, including Little Monkeys Play Centre, which could be impacted by the rules.

Mr Tantari, a former union leader, was elected to the seat of Hervey Bay following the retirement of four-term LNP state member Ted Sorensen and amid peak COVID-19 uncertainty.

Hervey Bay MP Adrian Tantari with the Premier during her visit to a local school. Pic Cody Fox

He is known for towing the party line and has so far been overshadowed by jobs and infrastructure wins in the neighbouring Labor electorate of Maryborough, held by Bruce Saunders.

He told parliament “the Premier and Chief Health Officer has done a world standard response to this challenge and they have kept us safe”.

Mr Tantari was asked why he believed the support of the motion was politically motivated given not all those who voted in favour were politically opposed, particularly the mayor, a long-term Labor Party member who had supported him at the last state election.

Adrian Tantari with supporters including Fraser Coast mayor George Seymour (Back left) on the night he was elected as Hervey Bay’s state member.

He was also asked whether his claimed link between the motion and escalating abuse towards health workers and small business workers was anecdotal, if he had examples/supporting statistics and he or any of his staff had been threatened and if so, had it been reported to the police.

The Chronicle had not received a response at the time of publication.

All councillors were given the chance to respond to Mr Tantari’s claims while the mayor and CEO were also asked whether they were concerned Mr Tantari’s strongly-worded speech and increasing criticism from Mr Saunders about council spending on Hervey Bay’s CBD and who should be responsible for road repairs, would impact the relationship between the state and council and potential future funding.

Aside from Mr Hansen’s reply, the only response received was from the mayor (which a spokesman explained was on behalf of the council) who told the Chronicle, “the relationship between Councillors, State MPs and Federal MPs is strong enough that we can hold differing views on different issues whilst maintaining a shared commitment to helping the community”.