Redland mayor candidate Jos Mitchell takes action against Andrew Laming over signs

Redland mayoral candidates Jos Mitchell and Andrew Laming will fight it out in court today, over election signs, ahead of tomorrow’s council election.

Uniformed Security guards have been posted at Capalaba ahead of this weekend’s council elections. Picture: Scott Powick

A bitter political battle between two bayside mayoral candidates will play out in the Supreme Court in Brisbane today over election signs ahead of tomorrow’s Redland City Council poll.

Candidate Jos Mitchell, who claims she is independent, is seeking an injunction to stop opponent Andrew Laming, a former federal MP, from putting up signs that say “Jos = Green$”.

It is likely to be the first time the two opponents have come face-to-face in a forum during the eight-week campaign.

The action follows yesterday’s move by the electoral commission to employ security officers to stand guard at polling centres after dozens of reports of aggressive behaviour in Redland.

In documents filed with the court, Ms Mitchell claims she is bringing the application as “I seek for a fair election in which I am not misrepresented”.

In her sworn statement to the court, Ms Mitchell said the signs had appeared at pre-polling booths at Victoria Point, Cleveland and Capalaba and other places in the past week.

“I believe the signs are misleading to electors and intended by the respondent to be so,” the document said.

“I confirm that I am not affiliated with the Greens Party or funded in anyway by the Greens Party.

“It is integral to my platform that I am an independent candidate not aligned nor funded by any political party.

“This is fundamental to my desire for council to be collaborative without any party boundaries inhibiting or affecting any council action.

“I am aware that Mr Laming has been alleging for many weeks that I am affiliated with the ALP, the Greens or the Teals.

“I have denied this and have informed him to his face many times that this is not true.

“He has not at any time stated the basis for his allegation.”

Split Redland mayoral candidates: Andrew Laming and Jos Mitchell. Pictures: Contributed

In her statement, Ms Mitchell outlines two instances where pre-election day voters have said they believed she was aligned with the Greens Party.

Mr Laming, who is representing himself in today’s proceedings, said before the court proceedings started that the action would be keeping him off the campaign trail for an entire day.

The former Bowman MP dropped his Liberal National Party membership in January, saying it had “no place” at a local level”.

Mr Laming said his signs about Ms Mitchell had no reference to the Greens Party.

“The signs say the word Green and then the dollar sign at the end and are referring to money that comes from the ‘green’ sector, backers, financiers and funders of green initiatives.

“Murray Haseler has made significant donations to her campaign and he is a well-known Greens donor.

“We are moving into a world where Independent candidates avoid the odium of being politicians or part of a political party.

“I’ve been making a simple claim – Labor backed and green-donor funded and I stand by those comments.”

According to the ECQ online donor register, Mr Haseler has donated $16,000 to Ms Mitchell’s campaign and is one of her largest donors.

Former Redland City Council staffer Cindy Corrie is also vying for the post of Redland mayor, a seat that will be vacated after retiring mayor Karen Williams announced she would step down late last year.

Ms Corrie, who was also a former Redland Coast Chamber of Commerce president also claims to be an Independent candidate.