Dubbo Council election candidates address campaign controversies

From anti-vaxxer allegations to complaint cover-up concerns and attacks over preference directions, key candidates in the race to run a regional NSW likened to a ‘soap opera’ have spoken out.

After enduring eight months of scandals and disunity one aspiring councillor has compared to a “soap opera”, voters will this Saturday make their final judgements about who should represent them on the next Dubbo Regional Council.

In a local government election campaign perhaps like no other, allegations have been laid bare and rumours have swirled about a range of candidates, often fuelled by social media comment sections and fed-up community members determined to have their voices heard and shape the future of their communities.

The Dubbo News has spoken to some of the candidates whose alleged past behaviour, campaign tactics or policy positions have sparked controversy during the campaign.

BEN SHIELDS

Ben Shields is one of three former Dubbo mayors trying to get back on council. Picture: Ryan Young

After serving for 22 years as a councillor and more than three years as mayor, Ben Shields has labelled the 2021 election campaign the “dirtiest ever”.

Mr Shields quit as mayor earlier this year after he lost the support of a majority of councillors and attempted to take his own life after numerous concerns about his alleged conduct in the role came to light.

He has denied wrongdoing and hit back at a litany of allegations levelled against him publicly, largely by his former deputy mayor-turned now outgoing mayor Stephen Lawrence, who has weighed a social media campaign against Mr Shields.

“I’ve refused to get down in the gutter like some councillors have been doing,” Mr Shields said.

“I’m only addressing this once and once only, I’m not going to dwell on these people because they’re frankly not worth it.”

Mr Shields said negative social media comments from a councillor, which referenced his “family”, had prompted him to speak out in the final week of the campaign.

While never stated in screenshots Mr Shields posted to his Facebook page, it is understood the comments posted about the “Shields Hillbilly family inbred gang” were made in reference to the team of 10 candidates Mr Shields has assembled to contest the election. Critics claim many of the candidates are either friends with family links or close associates of the former mayor.

Four members of the Ben Shields Team were elected to council at the last election. Picture: Facebook

“The vast bulk of my family are not involved in politics,” Mr Shields said.

“There is a line they cross when they attack my family and I think it needs to be called out.

“There’s other posts saying my whole family, the Shields family, are hillbillys and inbred.

“I’ve got dozens of cousins in Dubbo and a lot of them are highly offended by this man.”

When asked about claims from a group of residents, which suggest he blocks people who disagree with him on social media, Mr Shields said he made no apologies.

“If you’re going to be a tosser and come onto my page and carry on like a twit, you’re going to get blocked,” he said.

“I don’t have time or the energy anymore to put up with idiots online anymore. If they carry on like a fool and be argumentative for the sake of it or abusive, they just get blocked and I make no apologies for it.

“You can disagree with me, and if it’s a polite discussion, yes absolutely … but if you’re carrying on like a pork chop online and being argumentative for the sake of it well go do it elsewhere.”

In response to alarming revelations contained in an independent report into council’s handling of complaints, largely in the time he was mayor, Mr Shields said the report never showed he did anything wrong.

“The reality is that report did not claim any councillor was guilty or not guilty of anything, it was a report into how the … staff of council handled code of conduct complaints,” he said.

“It didn’t claim guilt on me or any other councillor.”

Dubbo Regional Council was handed a performance improvement order by Local Government Minister Shelley Hancock. Picture: Ryan Young

A copy of the confidential report leaked to various media outlets shows complaints about Mr Shields when he was mayor were dismissed and it concluded they were not dealt with appropriately by council staff.

Before the last election, Mr Shields championed the creation of an internal ombudsman position which was a focus of the report.

Mr Shields rejected a suggestion made by critics that he “covered up any complaints”.

“I didn’t get involved in the day-to-day running of council,” Mr Shields said.

“The Local Government Act forbids mayors and councillors from getting involved in those day-to-day runnings of council.

“This report was sold as some giant smoking gun against Ben Shields and what it effectively has shown is nothing. It doesn’t imply or say I’m guilty of anything.

“There’s nothing in that report saying that I covered up any complaints. There’s nothing in that report that says I’m guilty of anything and yet ratepayers have now spent a small fortune paying for this report that effectively says nothing about the current sitting councillors.”

GREG MATTHEWS

Former Dubbo mayor and council election candidate Greg Matthews at the Reclaim the Line rally.

Another former Dubbo mayor contesting the upcoming election has rejected suggestions he is “anti vaxx” after he spoke out about concerns regarding Covid vaccines and government public health measures limiting individual freedoms.

Greg Matthews recently took part in a local version of the nationwide Reclaim The Line protests in Dubbo.

“I was travelling to China and Asia and Hong Kong in the 1970s, I’ve had every vaccine known to man because they used to line you up for everything and that’s fine, I’m not anti-vaccine,” Mr Matthews said.

“Give me a traditional vaccine and it’s not a problem.

“I’ve done probably 60 to 70 hours of watching medical lectures about the mRNA treatment.

“They’re untested, they’ve not been trialled, they’ve failed … over the past 15 years they’ve been trying to introduce them to the human community and they’ve failed every test until now.”

According to the Australian Government’s Therapeutic Goods Administration, the organisation ensures every batch of vaccine supplied in Australia is independently assessed for quality and another set of government data shows more than 95 per cent of residents in the Dubbo region have received Covid vaccines without incident.

Despite overwhelming support for the vaccines from medical experts, Mr Matthews, who has no medical expertise, said mRNA technology concerned him.

“The AstraZeneca vaccine is a DNA vaccine … all three do have a similar approach to immunity and that is they get the nucleus of your cell to produce a spike protein, now that’s overriding the software of your cell because your cell doesn’t usually do that,” he said.

“No one knows the consequences of changing the software of your cell.

“There’s a traditional vaccine called Novax that’s in its third phase of testing. If it comes out, I’ll be one of the first in line for it.”

Greg Matthews hitting the hustings during the 2007 state election campaign.

Mr Matthews, a proud National Party member who previously contested the state seat of Dubbo at the 2007 election and came within 1000 votes of winning it off independent Dawn Fardell, said he was not afraid to voice his concerns.

“If I was a cynical politician and wanted to be desperately elected I’d shut up and not say a thing because if 95 per cent of Dubbo is vaccinated, I’m very much in the minority and I’ll upset all the people that are scared sh**less.

“I’m not scared, I’ve got 10 American friends that all had Covid. Six of them tell me it was a sniffle, one went to hospital, an older lady who was fairly overweight … lived and three of them found out they had it when they tested positive to the antibodies so they didn’t know they had it.

“The more you look into it, the more illogical it looks, it’s just fear and control and I don’t understand it. Someone’s making a hell of a lot of money out of this.”

Government “should butt out” and reconsider lockdowns and limits on individual freedoms, Mr Matthews said.

“I’ve always been a Conservative,” he said.

“To have Conservative governments or any government come over and tell me that I must be locked down, I must do whatever, it’s just bizarre, it makes no sense.

“I’m not vaccinated but I can go to the supermarket and mingle with the vaccinated, I can go to Bunnings, I can go to the chemist but apparently if you go to a pub and have a beer that’s a huge risk. It just doesn’t make any sense … if I wanted to live in a communist society I’d move to China.”

MATHEW DICKERSON

Former Dubbo mayor Mathew Dickerson. Picture: Ryan Young

The third former mayor contesting the election, Mathew Dickerson, had his marketing tactics called into question during the campaign after a small but vocal numbers expressed concern about receiving unsolicited emails and text messages from him.

“The ward system makes it very difficult to make sure you’re reaching people in your ward and your ward only,” Mr Dickerson said.

“If you get an ad in the newspaper or radio or on television, it’s just blasting out to everyone so it’s kind of a bit of a waste of time from a marketing perspective and we’re obviously limited with our funds.

“I thought the best way to get to the people who need to see the message was to get the electoral roll which you can request as a candidate … I bought a database, cross referenced that database against the electoral roll so then I just targeted people that lived in the Central ward only.”

While Dubbo voters may not be used to receiving campaign emails or text messages they have not directly requested from candidates in local government elections, Mr Dickerson said many marketers purchased databases from companies to get their messages out to people.

“Real estate agents use them all the time, as to how they collect that information (contact details in the databases) … I suspect that when you go to a website, put your details in and click ‘OK’ you probably just agree to something you don’t bother to read but that’s just a bit of a guess,” Mr Dickerson said.

“It’s not illegal in any way, it’s not against the rules.

“If you’re going to advertise and put yourself out there, some people will be offended by it.”

Mr Dickerson said a small number of people who received messages from him had complained and he apologised to them for any offence caused.

He said the main message he sent voters was a reminder that pre-poll voting had started.

The Australian Government’s Information Commissioner says registered political parties and political representatives carrying out election activities are exempt from privacy and spam laws.

The tactic used by Mr Dickerson was also employed by outgoing Dubbo mayor Stephen Lawrence, who is not contesting the election but purchased a database to send thousands of email and text messages to voters urging them to consider not voting for Mr Shields.

The move prompted Dubbo Regional Council to issue a statement reminding voters it had nothing to do with the messages Councillor Lawrence sent.

KARINA MCLACHLAIN

Dubbo Council election candidate and Stop The River Street Bridge campaigner Karina McLachlain. Picture: Facebook

North ward candidate Karina McLachlain came under fire on Facebook for a comment attacking Labor candidate Tatum Moore’s decision to direct preferences to non-Aboriginal candidates in the East Ward.

Ms Moore, a proud Aboriginal woman, is running as an ungrouped candidate while another prominent local Aboriginal community member Lewis Burns is running in a group he formed with Della Burns.

In a now deleted comment made on The Dubbo News Facebook page, Ms McLachain said “it is going to be very difficult to get even one of the Aboriginal candidates up in East Ward … Whilst Lewis and Della Burns were expecting to swap preferences with Tatum Moore of Labor, she snubbed them in favour of Ana Pateman and two privileged white men”.

Ms Moore’s election material shows her supporters to give preferences to independent candidates Ana Pateman, Rod Fardell and Damien Mahon.

The comment made by Ms McLachlain was labelled “offensive” by readers and she was accused of “throwing mud”.

Ms McLachlain said the criticism was not “entirely fair”.

“I admit that I didn’t express myself (sic) late at night, exhausted after walking for hours that day, I certainly don’t speak for others and I don’t spread false rumours,” she said.

“I regret making the comment because some people assumed that I was speaking on behalf of Lewis (Burns) when I was expressing my own opinion.

“However it’s an election campaign and every candidate should expect to get some flack.”

Dubbo Council Labor candidate Tatum Moore. Picture: Facebook

Ms McLachlain, who does not identify as Aboriginal, said she wanted to see Mr Burns, Ms Moore or Ms Burns get elected.

“Aboriginal friends expressed surprise that Tatum’s preferences went to non-Aboriginal candidates,” she said.

Ms Moore said she disagreed with Ms McLachlain’s assertions and rejected attempts to play Aboriginal candidates “against each other”.

“Uncle Lewis is a well known, respected elder and it was no disrespect to him,” Ms Moore said of her preferencing decision.

“There was no hard feelings. I aligned myself with people who had similar values.

“In all honesty, this journey has been new. When people were saying ‘you have to preference’ I was thinking ‘what is preferencing’. If I don’t understand something I don’t like to be told I have to do something … I need to know why and how it benefits me.”

Ms Moore said while she was prepared to cop criticism during the campaign, “attacking a young indigenous person trying to run” for council was wrong.

“There’s so many really good people running and it’s just so sad with this whole wards system, that only two people from each ward can actually get a seat.

“We’re one community, it doesn’t matter what part of town you live in, you should be able to vote for whoever you want.

“It’s not really even about me and I feel like every councillor should have that mindset, it’s about the people and everyone else.”

Ms McLachlain works with Mr Burns and she was running in a group with Grahame Miller in the North ward.

“I am a volunteer who has assisted Lewis and other candidates besides myself,” Ms McLachlain said.

“This has included putting up their signs and delivering their leaflets to letterboxes.”

SHIBLI CHOWDHURY

Dubbo National Party member Shibli Chowdhury is contesting the 2021 council election as an Independent candidate in the South ward.

South Ward candidate Shibli Chowdhury is running as an independent candidate, however like fellow ungrouped independent candidate Councillor Kevin Parker, he is a member of the NSW National Party which does not officially endorse candidates in local government elections.

Mr Chowdhury’s decision to label himself as an Independent has attracted some criticism from fellow candidates who fear that if elected he would not speak up about issues if they conflicted with the position of to the state Liberal Nationals Coalition government.

“I’m not hiding anything,” Mr Chowdhury said.

“I chose to run as an Independent because I think I need to be a voice for this community and I want to be a community councillor, not run by other big political parties

“I’ll keep my promises, I’ll do whatever is best for the community.”

Mr Chowdhury said he would stand up for the community first, even if his position as a councillor went against a policy position held by the National Party.

“This local election is about grassroots politics and there shouldn’t be any political party involved.

“People who live in the community will judge if I can do better or if they think I am the right person for them.”

Mr Chowdhury’s campaign manager is his friend and fellow National Party member and campaigner Geoffrey Ballard.

In a post previously made to Facebook, Mr Ballard has said he would be contributing to the funding of Mr Chowdury’s campaign personally and not through the National Party.

According to NSW Electoral Commission information sheets, Ben Shields team candidates Ben Shields, Jeremy Ellis and Greg Mohr are all members of the Liberal Party and they are running under the Ben Shields team label.

Greg Mathews, another Nationals member, is the only member of a political party who has chosen to leave the affiliation field blank on the ballot paper.