Council candidate claims opponent leaked info to Labor

A southeast Queensland council candidate who inadvertently disclosed personal information of 800 constituents has clarified she is not a Labor candidate as her complaint against her opposition is investigated.

Retired judge John Robertson as the council election watchdog.

A SECOND investigation has been carried out into conduct of election candidates in a southeast Queensland council race.

Division 2 councillor and incumbent Tracey Huges fired complaints to the Independent Council Election Observer about fellow divisional candidate Keith Mearns.

Cr Huges — who last year accidentally disclosed personal information of 800 constituents — called into question the content on an authorised campaign flyer for Mr Mearns.

On the flyer, under an image of Mr Mearns, is the line “working for Alex Hills. Not for a political party”.

“I am concerned (about) claims in the flyer that residents’ personal details belong with the Labor Party and that I am a current Labor Party Councillor,” Cr Huges said.

“I am not and never have been an endorsed Labor candidate and hold the view that those statements are at least misleading.”

The flyer goes on to read: “Councillors need to be independent of Labor and Liberal.

“This has never been more evident than when one of my close friend’s details, together with comments and issues, were sent to hundreds of households.

“This put their home at serious risk.

“I don’t think your personal details belong with the Labor party or on home email accounts, let alone being sent to hundreds of households. That is exactly the risk you take with the current Labor party councillor.”

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The statement referred to Cr Huges’ inadvertent sharing of personal details of constituents she had been in contact with regarding council matters by attaching it to a Ney Year’s Eve invitation email which was sent to 297 people.

The incident was referred by Redland City Council to the Office of the Information Commissioner and the Office of the Independent Assessor on 9 December 2020.

Retired district court judge John Robertson investigated the complaint.

“My team and I undertook some initial enquiries in respect of the issue of Cr Huges’ independence and/or membership of a political party,” Mr Robertson said.

“The first link following a Google search of ‘Councillor Tracey Huges’ takes the searcher to the Redlands City Council’s profile page on Cr Huges.

“There Cr Huges discloses, among other memberships, that she is a member of the Australian Labor Party.”

Tracey Huges. Picture: Darren England.

Mr Robertson said of all 77 local council areas in the state, the only one which “overtly contests” the election along party lines is Brisbane City Council.

“I am also aware of a number of instances where candidates who are members of registered political parties are contesting the local government elections as independents. This is lawful,” he continued.

He said it was a legal requirement for an elected councillor to disclose membership of any political party in their councillor register of interests.

“Cr Huges has complied with this obligation.”

He said she had also complied with requirements for election candidates to share on their EDQ nomination any membership of a political party, trade or professional organisation they have held within the previous 12 months.

In a response to Mr Robertson concerning the complaints, Mr Mearns referred to Cr Huges’ council profile which mentions her party affiliation.

Mr Mearns said it was “critical that voters are not mislead and can decide their vote with full truth”.

He claimed it was not misleading to say that Cr Huges was a Labor Party councillor.

“I accept that it is lawful for a candidate to run as an independent when they hold party membership, but I don’t think that a situation where a candidate claims independence without declaring their party membership is ethical or accurate,” Mr Mearns said.

However Mr Robertson cited an issue with the response.

“The problem with that is, as Mr Mearns himself establishes by taking me in his response to Cr Huges’ profile page, Cr Huges has declared her membership as is required by the law.

“In my opinion, when the words from the flyer set out above are considered as a whole, Mr Mearns is implying that Cr Huges is running as an endorsed Labor Party candidate when she is not.

“The ECQ Register of Donations for Cr Huges discloses no campaign donations from the ALP.

“I find that it is therefore misleading to refer to her as a Labor Party Councillor in his flyer.

Mr Mearns also suggested that because Cr Huges was a Labor Party member, she would also use the party’s ElecTrac database system and could therefore share information gained through her role in the council with Labor.

While Mr Mearns said Cr Huges’ disclosure of the information to her New Year’s Eve invitation list supported his suspicion, Mr Robertson said there was no “suggestion that Cr Huges sent personal material in some way to the Labor Party”.

“The evidence before me, and the admitted actions of Cr Huges for which she apologised, does not support any inference that the information she sent inadvertently to residents in her division was linked in some way with the Labor Party,” Mr Robertson said.

“For these reasons, I uphold both aspects of Cr Huges’ review request”.

The finding follows another investigation by Mr Robert’s office into a Redland City Council election candidate last week, after Mayor Karen Williams filed a complaint against Division 2 candidate Callen Sorensen-Karklis.

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