Dubbo Council election campaign labelled ‘dirtiest’ ever

A battle to shape the future direction of a scandal-plagued council has led to a local election campaign like no other in regional NSW.

With less than two weeks to go until the final votes will be cast in local government elections across NSW, the campaign to determine the future of Dubbo Regional Council has continued to generate intense public debate as a current mayor vows to continue his campaign against a former mayor who claims disputed allegations of wrongdoing won’t distract him.

Bitter divisions within the council first emerged in March 2021 after Mayor Stephen Lawrence led public calls for then mayor Ben Shields to quit because of concerns about his alleged conduct in the role.

Former Dubbo mayor Ben Shields with current mayor Stephen Lawrence in happier times. Picture: Ben Shields Team/Facebook

After Mr Shields lost the support of a majority of councillors he attempted to take his own life and spent several weeks in hospital recovering.

Despite initially vowing to press on once he recovered and went public with details of his mental health challenges, Mr Shields resigned and called on Local Government Minister Shelley Hancock to sack the council after councillors voted to cut his mayoral pay while he was absent from the role.

Mr Shield’s former deputy Stephen Lawrence was voted in as mayor and the council ordered an independent investigation into how the organisation had been managing complaints.

Ms Hancock responded to the controversy by imposing a performance improvement order which required councillors refrain from making public allegations of wrongdoing against council officials and interfering in code of conduct matters.

About four months after quitting, Mr Shields announced plans to contest the 2021 local government elections on December 4 with a group of candidates running as part of the Ben Shields Team group.

SOCIAL MEDIA CAMPAIGN

The move divided the local community with critics of Mr Shields’s performance in the role mobilising against him, while his supporters welcomed news of a potential comeback.

Ben Shields at one of his last council meetings. Picture: Ryan Young

Since the election campaign began, Cr Lawrence has used Facebook to argue strongly against a return to the Shields era.

In a series of daily posts, Cr Lawrence has made a litany of allegations about Mr Shields which the former mayor has largely strenuously denied or chosen not to respond to.

Voters who claim to have had run-ins with Mr Shields have been galvanised by Cr Lawrence’s campaign against him, flocking to Facebook to complain about his performance in the role and how they have allegedly been blocked from posting to The Ben Shields Team Facebook page.

Various memes and unflattering material, including a leaked old voicemail message to a family member in which Mr Shields defends himself against criticism and refers to a “crazy skank of a wife” and “houso Alcheringa Street piece of sh**”, have also been posted on Facebook in support of the campaign against Mr Shields.

‘DIRTIEST ELECTION’ EVER

He chose not to respond when asked about the words used in the voicemail message, however Mr Shields hit back at the campaign against him.

“These allegations have been made against me for nine months and not once had the police, ICAC (Independent Commission Against Corruption), the Department of Local Government, anyone questioned me about my conduct in office,” Mr Shields said.

“There’s not even a process in place to deal with the allegations, I have not been interviewed by police, the Office of Local Government, ICAC or even the private investigator hired by council.”

Dubbo Mayor Stephen Lawrence says he will not be silenced. Picture: Toby Zerna

Mr Shields, who was a councillor for more than 20 years, said he remained committed to running a positive campaign focused on advancing new polices.

“It’s certainly the dirtiest election campaign I’ve ever been involved in,” he said.

“I’m not going to get into the gutter, people who know me and support me know this is nothing but dirty politics.”

In a sign of how bitter the battle for a seat on the council has become, Mr Shields was last week forced to put a guillotine through election signs because a complaint had been made to the council about them being too big and in breach of rules.

“Petty squabbles happen in all election campaigns,” he said.

“What I had to do was quickly adapt and change and not be distracted in the campaign.

“I’ve never seen in Dubbo, sign size enforced. There’s been giant signs all over Dubbo in previous elections but they’ve dusted off a rule which they found.”

Ben Shield's election signs had to be cut down because they were too large. Picture: Facebook/Ben Shields Team

Responding to further criticism he failed to front an election forum organised by people with concerns about the current council, Mr Shields maintained he had a prior engagement locked in.

“The actual reason why we didn’t attend is because there was a Ratepayers Association meeting … this is the first meeting we’ve had since lockdown,” he said.

“I’m a founding member of the Ratepayers Association in Dubbo, it would have been the absolute last time I got to talk to them all before election day and I just had to direct my priorities which I thought would be best for our campaign.”

Mr Shields said about 33 people attended the meeting and claims they were mostly members of his family were wrong.

“If someone tried to gather all 33 members of their family together overnight, it would be just ridiculous,” he said.

“Of course there were members of my family there, but the vast bulk of them I’m no relation to.”

MAYOR WON’T BE SILENCED

Cr Lawrence said while he was not contesting the election, he would continue to campaign against Mr Shields.

“I will also continue to engage in political communication and that will include airing allegations against Ben Shields so that Ben can answer them and the community can vote in an informed way,” Cr Lawrence said.

“In local government code of conduct...councillors [are] prohibited from talking about code of conduct unless proven. Even then there are restrictions in terms of what information is released.

“That’s all well and good and I understand the code, and I have strived to comply with it but the code is trumped by the implied freedom of political communication, in my view.”

Dubbo Regional Council was formed after the merger of Dubbo and Wellington councils in 2017. Picture: Ryan Young

Cr Lawrence said in an election campaign he had “the right to politically communicate”.

“The suggestion that I am not allowed, by virtue of the operation of a Code of Conduct, to air these matters, is frankly ridiculous,” Cr Lawrence said.

“There’s an implied freedom of political communication in the Australian Constitution, that on authority of the High Court, has been applied to both levels of government and local government is a subset of state government.

“That authority basically says in a federal system you can’t strictly delineate federal, state and local.”

When questioned about the prospect of action being taken against him for speaking out against Mr Shields, Cr Lawrence said he was “not the sort of person who is easily scared”.

“When I took an oath as a councillor, I took an oath to do the right thing by the community,” he said. “I have had to make really difficult judgement calls about what exactly that means.

“I will simply not let the community down by being silenced.

“If the Office of Local Government takes action against me, I will assert my rights, I will test the lawfulness of their actions and I am very confident that everything I have done is well within my rights.”

Dubbo Council election candidate Matt Wright says the public wants to see fresh faces on council. Picture: Facebook

LOOKING FORWARD

Despite conflict being a dominant theme of the campaign, all 35 candidates contesting the election were recently able to reach an agreement to introduce Covid safety guidelines above and beyond what the NSW Electoral Commission required.

The consensus approach taken on the issue has given some in the community hope the new council will put the bitter divisions of the past behind it.

North Ward candidate Matt Wright said several candidates, concerned about the risk of polling places turning into Covid superspreader locations, had put forward the idea of introducing a rule preventing any candidate or volunteer from being within 100 metres of the entrance to the grounds of a polling place.

“This is about putting the community interests at the front of our minds,” he said.

“We’ve seen our Covid numbers dwindle pretty substantially, but as recently as today we’ve got a bit of a cluster growing quite rapidly at Coonabarabran and that’s not that far away from us.

“While the polling places are outside there’s still potentially an element of risk associated with that.”

Mr Wright said he sensed there was a mood for change in the community, with people fatigued from the dramas consuming council.

“From the conversations we had, the general idea from the public is that they’re probably a little bit over it as well and they’re pretty keen just to see some fresh faces on council,” he said.

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