Council staff must not stifle the role of public debate and scrutiny

The role of a free press is a well-established cornerstone of Western democracies, and the right of public figures to question authorities openly is a principle that should not need to be explicitly defended.

And yet the actions of staff at one Sydney council have called into question these fundamental rights and attracted the attention of the state government, which has rightly intervened in an attempt to force the staff into line.

As Michael McGowan writes, Local Government Minister Ron Hoenig has written to Georges River Council threatening it with a performance improvement notice unless it complies with an order to not impede with “the right of a councillor’s ability to communicate about political matters”. He also said it must scrap rules which force councillors to register interactions with the media.

Georges River Councillor Ashvini Ambihaipahar was hit with a code of conduct investigation for making mild criticisms of the council.Credit: Jessica Hromas

Labor-aligned councillors at Georges River say they have been singled out and threatened by council staff because they had the temerity to raise the actions of the council in the local media.

Councillor Ashvini Ambihaipahar was told by council staff that she was subject to a code of conduct investigation after she went on Nine News to question the use of ticketless parking fines by councils. This was an issue that has raised widespread unease in the general community and has been subject to much scrutiny and debate.

And yet Ambihaipahar has been forced to spend months fighting the investigation into her actions.

Another Labor councillor, Thomas Gao, received a reprimand from council staff after he was quoted in a local paper calling for a study into traffic safety in Carlton.

He subsequently received an email from council warning him this “should not be raised in the media, but through committee meetings or through traffic committee”. The email also reminded him that under council policy he was required to register all contact with the media.

This is ridiculous. The role of elected councillors is to oversee the operations of council and ensure full-time staff operate in an honest and efficient way that benefits ratepayers. Trying to silence councillors by forbidding them from making any public comment and forcing them to reveal who they have contacted in the media are the actions of desperate bureaucrats trying to avoid proper scrutiny.

Hoenig has issued the council with an improvement order, warning it could be in breach of the Local Government Act by “constraining” councillors’ ability to act in the interests of residents.

Councillors are due to consider Hoenig’s order at a meeting on Monday night.

Sensibly, they have recommended dropping the policy requiring councillors to register any contact with media – but they have also recommended rejecting the improvement order as “invalid”.

In fact, they need to pull their heads in and recognise that part of the job of popularly elected councillors is to lead and respond to public debate about what councils do. If their actions are fair and just, what are they afraid of?

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