Councillor’s post labelling Aussie cops as ‘racist’ breaches Code of Conduct

Controversial Brisbane Councillor Jonathan Sri has been reprimanded by the city council’s ethics committee over a social media post in which he slammed Australian police.

Cr Jonathon Sir at the ethics committee surrounding a Facebook post he made. Picture: John Gass

Brisbane City Council’s ethics committee has found that a Facebook post by Greens councillor Jonathan Sri slamming Australian police has breached a councillors’ Code of Conduct.

Cr Sri in June last year posted to his public Facebook page that “Australian police are racist and violent”.

The Councillor Ethics Committee on Tuesday voted in favour of upholding the Councillor Conduct Tribunal’s findings that there was sufficient evidence to warrant inappropriate conduct.

Cr Sri sat in on the meeting at City Hall, however, he wasn’t permitted to engage in the discussion among three Liberal National Party councillors and three Labor councillors.

“This is yet another example of hypocritical politicians claiming to care about free speech while censoring and disciplining anyone who dares to say something that they disagree with, without even giving me a chance to address the committee and defend myself,” Cr Sri said outside the meeting.

Cr Jonathan Sri at the ethics committee surrounding a Facebook post he made. Picture: John Gass

Chairing the meeting, councillor Adam Allan told the committee they were to consider whether Cr Sri had breached sections of the code which says councillors will clearly state whether they are speaking on behalf of Council or expressing their personal views when making public comment, and have proper regard for other people’s rights, obligations, cultural differences, safety, health and welfare.

Cr Allan and councillors Peter Matic, Tracy Davis and Peter Cumming voted in favour of finding a breach while councillors Charles Strunk and Kara Cook voted against the finding of a breach.

Councillor Adam Allen chairs the meeting of the ethics committee surrounding a Facebook post by Cr Jonathon Sri. Picture: John Gass

Those in favour of the breach also voted to formally reprimand Cr Sri.

Cr Cook said she held concerns about the way in which the committee was provided evidence and said they weren’t given any details about a complaint made to the Office of the Independent Assessor regarding the Facebook post.

She said the committee had been asked to become “judge, jury and executioner” with limited information.

“We don’t know if that person did feel their rights, obligations, cultural differences, safety, health and welfare were at risk or not,” Cr Cook said.

She said she didn’t believe Cr Sri’s comments had the impact that the Tribunal member asserted.

“That specifically seems to be around safety and that in some way this post unjustly heightened community tensions and made the job of police more challenging and less safe,” Cr Cook said.

“I don’t think there's actually any real evidence of that.

“I think that’s a real stretch when it comes to this matter.”

Cr Matic said making a global statement about police in such an “emphatic” way could be deemed derogatory.

“When someone does make statements like this from a position of authority which we all hold, we need to do it in a manner that is measured,” he said.

“We can make representations on wrongful acts.

“We can make representations, and do, on matters of social justice but we should always do them in a manner that is considerate and respectful and not general but more specific.”

The committee heard Cr Sri had “watered down” his post about police shortly after publishing it.

Outside the meeting, Cr Sri said public officials had the right and responsibility to speak up about racist systems and cultural norms within government departments including the police.

“A growing chorus of voices is raising concerns about the racist nature of Australian policing, and we need to have serious conversations about this issue rather than silencing anyone who speaks up about it,” he said.

“My post last June was not about whether individual police officers are overtly racist – it’s about the institution as a whole.”