Mackay council drama spills over into Facebook
The collapse of a Queensland local government ‘team’ degraded into a Facebook sledging match. See the creative insults, and explanations.
Mackay
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It’s currently a three-way race for the mayoralty of Mackay, and as tensions heat up, councillors have taken to social media to denigrate their colleagues.
Fair criticism, or childish antics? We gave each councillor the opportunity to explain their words - and their ‘likes’.
This is the inside story of why the Williamson Alliance collapsed, how a gap between councillors quickly blew out into a chasm, and how the battlelines have been redrawn.
Read how the drama unfolded as well as responses from each individual councillor below >>>
From allies to ashes
Mayor Greg Williamson entered the 2020 race with councillors Justin Englert, Pauline Townsend, Belinda Hassan, Fran Mann, Michelle Green and Deputy Mayor Karen May at his side.
Going into the 2024 election, only Ms Green and Mrs May have renewed their allegiance with Mr Williamson forced to recruit new faces to fill his “team”, ditching the “alliance” tag that sparked community backlash.
What was once a close-knit team fractured after a 17-year-old Eimeo teenager died in a motorbike crash, spurring an ugly war-of-words that played out on social media and in council chambers.
A community in mourning chose artistic expression to honour William Baker but after every councillor excluding Mr Williamson, Mrs May and Ms Green voted to paint over the unauthorised skate park memorial mural before it was finished, the public responded in fury and sent death threats to multiple councillors.
With one statement, the damage is done
Mr Williamson voiced his disappointment about the vote on his official council Facebook page while also pleading with the public to temper their reactions.
He later deleted it and apologised to his peers at the next council meeting, but the alliance’s downfall had begun.
Ms Mann slammed Mr Williamson on Facebook saying he had caused “personal and reputational damage to eight councillors”, adding they “had a right to vote on issues according to their conscience” without belittlement or threats.
Martin Bella, not shy about his adversarial stance to the mayor, then shared her post adding Mr Williamson’s words had encouraged violence and alleged he ignored multiple requests to take them down.
A spy in the ranks
In the months that followed, the cracks turned into chasms with Ms Mann and Ms Townsend liking Mr Bella’s thinly-veiled swipes at the mayor on Facebook which included inferring he only went to events to be photographed.
Ms Mann added her two cents, writing “the mayor and his cronies show up (at events) for a photo and go”.
Mr Bella has also taken aim at Ms Green after she mispronounced moot as mute while speaking to a motion during a council meeting, with Ms Mann commenting “better to mute oneself than look like a dumbarse”.
The jabs have only escalated in the lead-up to the election, with Mr Bella saying the mayor was behaving “dangerous(ly)” in fixating his eyes on his “legacy”.
There has also been allegations of “eavesdroppers”, with Mr Bella suggesting Mr Williamson sent a proxy to observe a meeting of independent candidates.
That meeting was reported to the Electoral Commission Queensland which cleared Mr Bella of any wrongdoing.
Ms Townsend at the meeting made an explosive allegation that while Mr Williamson at first told his alliance members to vote how they felt, he later expected them to “vote according to (his) policy”.
‘Smart people learn from their mistakes’
Fran Mann recently admitted on Facebook she regretted ever aligning with Mr Williamson, writing “smart people admit to and learn from their mistakes”.
She, along with Mr Bella, Ms Townsend, and councillor Russell Seymour have all thrown their public support behind the third mayoral candidate, fellow councillor Laurence Bonaventura.
Mr Bonaventura has thus far kept his feelings on Mr Williamson closely guarded but there are still two months to go until voters hit the booths.
Mr Williamson is also up against Mackay businessman Steve Jackson who is relying on his NRL mates to boost his profile.
WHAT EACH COUNCILLOR SAID:
Martin Bella
When asked about his Facebook posts, Mr Bella replied he had to “fight with everything you possible can” having been “horribly outnumbered” in council chambers “for six years because of the team thing”.
He defended his online behaviour, including his criticism of Ms Green’s mispronunciation, as “just comments”.
“There’s nothing worse than someone who tries to use the word and doesn’t understand,” he said.
“If you don’t value the language, then don’t put yourself in the situation.”
Mr Bella said people could read his posts or “scroll on”.
“When you are sitting (in a council meeting) and people are laughing, sniggering and interjecting with exclamations while you’re speaking and the person in charge of the meeting (Mr Williamson) does nothing, it is very difficult to tolerate,” he said.
“To me, nothing I say is a falsehood.
“The truth may hurt, but it’s the truth.
“I’m not here to worry about people’s sensibilities.
“ I’m here to make sure things get done properly.
Mr Bella, like many of his fellow councillors, pinned the skate park debacle as the moment the alliance fell apart.
“We did the right thing,” he said regarding his vote to paint over the mural.
“We then faced literally death threats.”
Mr Bella said the councillors had for eight days via texts, emails and phone calls requested Mr Williamson take his Facebook post down, and during that time he worried about the safety of his peers who were being “abuse(d) on the street” and contacted at all hours.
He added that Facebook post was him fighting back and it was in his nature to defend himself and “those around (him)”.
Pauline Townsend
Ms Townsend said Mr Bella “calls it as it is” and his Facebook posts were “right on the mark”.
“What he puts up there is a reflection of what goes on in council sometimes,” Ms Townsend said.
“He’s very honest … I don’t think it’s a bad thing.
“Some may view it as airing your dirty linen.”
Ms Townsend said the rift has been irreparable since the skate park issue which opened her to abuse and led her to report threats to the police.
“Every one of us (who voted to paint over the mural) got abused time and again,” she said.
“I sent an email to the mayor and asked him to take it down.
“He left it up for eight days and ignored it … I still do not understand what we did wrong.
“It was eight to three, you have to accept the democratic decision, the majority rules.”
Ms Townsend said the mayor “in his position … should have known better” about posting his disappointment on Facebook.
She said Ms May and Ms Green had supported the post under which members of the public had listed the councillors’ mobile numbers.
She said it felt like “walking into the Lion’s Den” when they had to just days later meet with the public to discuss the Northern Beaches Community Hub.
“I’m a woman who values my standing in the community,” Ms Townsend said.
“I’ve done comm work for 40 years or more, the mayor knows that.
“He knows my character, when he cast (ed) doubts in their mind about my integrity and values, it knocked the stuffing out of me.”
Ms Townsend said the skate park was the “start” of her break from the alliance as she “started to see the real pictures”, adding the council worked better when councillors acted independently.
Michelle Green and Karen May
Ms Green and Mrs May submitted their response on behalf of Team Williamson.
“Team Greg Williamson is a group of community minded, passionate, individuals who collectively provide a vast array of skills and experience both from personal and business perspectives,” they said.
“They are committed to working together through a focused approach to deliver a positive future for the people of the Mackay region.”
Fran Mann
Ms Mann said Mr Bella was “entitled” to do what he likes on Facebook.
“We’re all individuals, we can put up what we think is appropriate,” Ms Mann said, adding her comment on Mr Bella’s jab at Ms Green was “just a general comment”.
“I often call myself that (a dumbarse) as well,” she said.
Ms Mann said while the alliance was broken post skate park, she and other councillors had kept acting in the region’s interests.
She said Mr Williamson had handled the situation “poorly” and there was no reason for him to criticise the vote on Facebook.
“I went through eight days of hell with that post … we were left hung out to dry,” Ms Mann said, further alleging Mr Williamson had felt “a certain satisfaction from that happening”.
Like Ms Townsend, Ms Mann said as time passed, members of Mr Williamson’s alliance were “ostracised” for voting off the mark, describing herself as “political fodder”.
She added the fallout had created an opportunity for her to get to know Mr Bella and see a “totally different side to him”.
“He’s a person of great integrity,” she said.
“I’ll say the same about Laurence (Bonaventura) and Alison (Jones).
“It’s been great to get to know them and their values.”
Alison Jones
Mrs Jones said Mr Bella’s Facebook posts were a matter of “freedom of speech”, and agreed the skate park was the watershed moment.
“I had threats made towards me (for voting no to keeping the mural),” Mrs Jones said.
“It caused the utmost distress for quite some weeks, and while as a councillor I’m there to make the hard decisions, it certainly wasn’t a pleasant time.
Mrs Jones said it was disappointing Mr Williamson, Mrs May and Ms Green disregarded their code of conduct which specifies the need to respect a majority vote.
She said the resulting rift had “definitely” made her work as a councillor uncomfortable but she had “always been and will remain independent”.
Mrs Jones said she was a firm believer teams did not belong in local government.
Russell Seymour
Mr Seymour said while he had “pretty thick skin” and did not listen to “whispers” outside of the council, many people could take Mr Bella’s posts “to heart, especially the women” and did not approve of them.
He said he had known the mural issue would “start a keyboard war” and his vote to paint over the “illegal” memorial had followed council policy.
Mr Seymour described the dissolution of the alliance as sudden.
“(It’s) all sour grapes I reckon,” he said.
“We had 18 months of putting up with the (alliance).
“There were borderline decisions and we had only four (independent) councillors.
“Things went through (council) because Greg (Williamson) wanted them through.
“Once things split up, things became a lot more open.
“There was partiality, it was good.”
Mr Seymour said before the rift, there was a “stigma between us and them” but now, “communication is a lot better”.
Belinda Hassan
Ms Hassan said what councillors put on Facebook was “their own business” and not her place to judge.
Unlike her fellow councillors, Ms Hassan said the alliance for her “ceased to exist the second we were elected”.
“There was no alliance from the moment I was sworn in as a councillor,” she said.
“I saw myself as part of 10 councillors and a mayor … I made it clear I was there as an independent thinker.”
Ms Hassan said her decision to join the Greg Williamson Alliance in 2020 made financial “sense” after her 2019 bid for a federal seat drained resources.
She said as an independent, she would “work with anyone who gets elected” and would focus on running a positive campaign.
Greg Williamson
Mr Williamson said the allegations he showed up to events to have his photograph taken were “absolute rubbish and just not true”.
He said he would not comment on Mr Bella’s Facebook posts as that “just lower(ed) the debate”.
“My thoughts are that the public will make their call on the standard that they expect from their local government members,” Mr Williamson said, adding residents would determine their own thoughts on “the work that (he did) in the community”.
This publication also contacted Councillor Justin Englert but did not receive a response by deadline.
Correction:
This article previously stated Ms Hassan liked Mr Bella’s thinly-veiled swipes at the mayor on Facebook which included inferring he only went to events to be photographed.
This publication would like to clarify that Ms Hassan liked Mr Bella’s post about the Electoral Commission of Queensland clearing him of any wrongdoing after the meeting of independent candidates.
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