Election watchdog called over Redland confrontations, bullying complaints

The election watchdog has been called to vet behaviour of candidates in the Redland City Council election race after Facebook posts, footpath confrontations, and a mayoral candidate’s claims of being isolated from a community debate.

Redland City Council mayoral candidates from left, Andrew Laming, Cindy Corrie and Jos Mitchell.

The state election watchdog is looking at a growing number of complaints about the local council election race in a southeast Queensland city.

Candidates in the Redland City Council election have made complaints about alleged cases of online bullying, physical aggression, heated footpath confrontations and publication of unauthorised election material since nominations closed on November 5.

The Electoral Commission of Queensland was called on Friday after Redland mayoral candidate Andrew Laming posted on Facebook that a candidate for a councillor position, businessman Brian McDonald, was “out of the race”.

Mr McDonald lodged a complaint with the commission, claiming the post was detrimental to his election prospects and would give voters the impression he had withdrawn from the election.

Candidate Brian McDonald had to take to Facebook to let voters he was still in the race. Picture: Facebook

“I did send a complaint to ECQ, however they do not acknowledge or respond and they don’t discuss anything externally,” Mr McDonald said.

“We have no knowledge of what their actions may be, if any.”

Mr Laming said the post was part of election campaigning and believed it had not broken any aspect of the Local Government Electoral Act.

Mr Laming also sent ECQ copies of anonymous letters from an email account [e-mail] titled “Can you trust this man?” which had no name, no identification and no authorisation.

A Facebook page, not related to any of the candidates, was also reported to ECQ, for allegedly not authorising content.

A message from ECQ asking the managers of a Facebook page.

The Facebook post about Mr McDonald came five days after Mr McDonald called Mr Laming “an insignificant p---- who hides behind Facebook.”

The incident was recorded on video by both Mr Laming and Mr McDonald.

Division 2 candidate Brian McDonald at the Cleveland Markets. Picture: Video from Andrew Laming

The footage also included mayoral candidate Jos Mitchell who was there when Mr Laming questioned her independence claiming she was Green-funded and Labor-backed.

Video audio revealed Ms Mitchell asking Mr Laming to remove any mention of her name on his social media pages, something which Mr Laming refused to do.

She said she was referring to comments about her allegedly being connected to the Greens Party and the Labor Party.

Only Mr Laming and the third mayoral candidate, Cindy Corrie, will attend a mayoral election breakfast, organised by the Redland Coast Chamber of Commerce, on Wednesday morning.

Ms Mitchell said she would not attend the event based on advice she had received.

Redland mayoral candidate Jos Mitchell. Picture: Video Andrew Laming

She said she believed the chamber election talk should not be held because Ms Corrie had a conflict of interest as she was the immediate past president and closely associated with the chamber’s members.

Ms Corrie vacated the position of president in 2022, a post she held after being the organisation’s vice-president for two years.

Ms Mitchell said she would be happy to meet with the chamber outside the event.

Mr Laming said it was unacceptable for a mayoral candidate to be unable to address a Chamber of Commerce.

“If Ms Mitchell becomes the city’s next mayor, how will she be able to operate if she cannot address the Chamber of Commerce, which is one sector of the community?”

The debate debacle was fuelled after Mr Laming attended a community forum, organised by community group Redlands2030, at which Ms Mitchell was speaking.

Mr Laming, who did not RSVP in time to an invitation, entered the event and stood at the back of the room before he was spotted and asked to leave.

Footage from mayoral candidate Andrew Laming at a Redlands2030 community meeting at which mayoral candidate Jos Mitchell spoke. Picture: Andrew Laming.

Mr Laming posted a video of himself outside the hall claiming that he had been denied the right to address voters.

ECQ said it was unable to comment on any complaints but had an active compliance program which included monitoring for unauthorised election material, undisclosed electoral expenditure and other matters.

An ECQ spokesman said the watchdog had limited ability to look into candidate activity on social media and did not comment on specific compliance activities “which may or may not be underway”.

The spokesman said ECQ staff meet regularly with political participants, including those in the Redland City Council, as part of their election activities.

The spokesman said Mr Laming was an eligible candidate despite being found last year to have breached the federal Electoral Act with three Facebook posts.

Originally published as Election watchdog called over Redland confrontations, bullying complaints