Brisbane City Councillor Nicole Johnston takes council to court over conduct review panel finding

AN INDEPENDENT Brisbane councillor is taking her own council to court in a dispute over a move by its conduct review panel to fine her after she was expelled from a budget meeting in June last year.

Independent Brisbane City councillor Nicole Johnston is taking legal action after she was fined by council’s conduct review panel. Picture: Richard Walker

INDEPENDENT Brisbane City councillor Nicole Johnston is taking her own council to court over a move by its conduct review panel to fine her more than $6000.

Cr Johnston said the panel’s decision related to her expulsion from a council budget meeting in June last year.

Court documents filed by Cr Johnston’s solicitors allege she did not immediately leave the meeting after council chairman Angela Owen “purported to direct” her to do so.

Cr Johnston said in a statement that her application would argue her expulsion from the meeting relied on an invalid motion, and that there was no basis for the councillor conduct review panel to find against her.

The councillor’s solicitors lodged her claim, which she said she would personally fund, in the Supreme Court last week.

“I am concerned that I am being deliberately excluded from participating in Brisbane City Council meetings as an elected representative, contrary to the rules of procedure,” she said.

“My application to the court will argue that the expulsion relied upon an invalid motion and that Cr Owen did not have any power under the Meetings Local Law 2001 to expel me from the Council Budget meeting.

“As a result, there was no basis for a Code of Conduct decision.”

A council spokesman said the Brisbane City Council would defend any decisions of the councillor conduct review panel.

“The Councillor Conduct Review Panel is independent of both elected representatives and council officers,” he said.

Cr Johnston was first elected to the Brisbane City Council for the ward of Tennyson in 2008 for the LNP, before she quit the party in 2010 and won two more elections as an independent.