Pop star Guy Sebastian caught up in North Sydney Council drama
POP star Guy Sebastian was at the acrimonious North Sydney Council meeting that lit the fuse on a simmering feud between Mayor Jilly Gibson and the general manager.
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POP STAR Guy Sebastian was an inadvertent witness to infighting at North Sydney Council, a public inquiry has been told.
The Battle Scars singer was at a fiery meeting at the chambers in August 2014, when he was trying to organise a local festival with event organiser Phil Harte.
Mr Harte told the inquiry in to the council on Monday that the meeting was “distressing” and that he witnessed “the most disgusting display of abuse and bullying” towards Mayor Jilly Gibson there.
Those allegations were denied by former general manager Warwick Winn.
“I certainly wasn’t involved in any pack attack upon the mayor. That’s just — that’s just rubbish,” Mr Winn told the inquiry.
He said he remembered the meeting as “positive”, even though he later apologised to both Sebastian and Mr Harte because of the “normal tit-for-tat stuff” that had occurred.
The inquiry into allegations of conflict and dysfunction at the council was launched by Local Government Minister Paul Toole after years of council infighting. During a sensational opening week, evidence focused on the breakdown of the professional relationship between Mayor Jilly Gibson and GM Warwick Winn.
Mr Harte also alleged that councillors were calling out during the 2014 meeting — but Mr Winn didn’t remember that.
Mr Winn was questioned about the contrast between his recollections and Mr Harte’s and he conceded that there were incidents that he had probably erased for “psychological reasons”.
Mr Winn told the inquiry that Cr Gibson “completely lost it” with him at the end. He believed that Guy Sebastian had left by that stage.
“At the end of the meeting the Mayor came over and, well, harangued me and berated me for any number of different things,” he said.
“It was a shocking experience.”
But Mr Harte saw it differently. He told the inquiry that he didn’t get perturbed by many things but that what he witnessed at North Sydney Council was quite “distressing”.
“I was probably concerned at the way in which the mayor was being treated, largely — and I think the word “bullying”comes to mind,” he said.
“I just couldn’t for the life of me understand how one person could be berated and bullied publicly.”
GM says councillor behaviour ‘unacceptable’
Another key line of questioning was about the relocation of Mr Winn’s office to another building, a move Cr Gibson alleged was engineered to isolate her.
“That’s just nonsense. It wasn’t the case at all,” Mr Winn told the inquiry.
Cr Gibson also claimed that Mr Winn called her a “silly cow” — an accusation that he flatly denied.
“Mayor Gibson was often saying that I had said things and done things,” he said. “I didn’t say that.”
In her evidence Cr Gibson recalled an incident when she tried to see Mr Winn in his offices. He told her she wasn’t allowed in and the situation quickly escalated.
“I just touched him and then he starts this ridiculous facade, yelling out, ‘Jilly, you’re assaulting me, you’re assaulting me’,” she said.
Cr Gibson told the inquiry it was the sort of thing Mr Winn always did because no-one else was watching and it was her word against his.
The inquiry also heard about the 25 code of conduct complaints lodged against Cr Gibson. Eight of those were lodged by Mr Winn between December 2013 to March 2016.
Mr Winn told the inquiry that the behaviour of councillors Zoe Baker, MaryAnn Beregi, Melissa Clare and Jeff Morris was “pretty unacceptable” a lot of the time at meetings.
He was quizzed about why he had not made complaints about their behaviour given this statement.
“The complaints I made against Mayor Gibson were a tip of the iceberg,” he said.
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