By Adam Carey
The City of Whittlesea’s new mayor has been sensationally censured for alleged misconduct by all 10 other members of the council, who voted unanimously to discipline him over public comments he has made while contesting the Werribee state byelection, according to minutes of the meeting.
Right-leaning political journeyman Aidan McLindon faces internal arbitration for alleged breaches of 12 clauses of the model councillor code of conduct, after councillors took issue with comments he has made to the media and on social media since being elected mayor in November.
Mayor of Whittlesea and Werribee byelection candidate Aidan McLindon faces arbitration over alleged breaches of the councillor code of conduct.Credit: Simon Schluter
Whittlesea Council held an urgent, unscheduled meeting on Tuesday night. Councillors believed the matter could not wait until the next scheduled council meeting because the nature of McLindon’s behaviour had been “escalating” since he launched his candidacy in Saturday’s state byelection.
McLindon – a former Queensland LNP MP who ran against ex-premier Daniel Andrews as an anti-lockdown candidate during the 2022 state election – has criticised the Local Government Act since announcing his run in Werribee, arguing the act stifles councillors’ freedom of speech and reduces Victorian councils to “pseudo-Labor Party branches”.
He has also sparred on Facebook with former long-serving Whittlesea councillor John Fry, writing: “You had your time and blew it. You sound like an angry drunk at a football stand who can’t read the scoreboard from the front row seats.”
McLindon has claimed on social media that he has received a death threat since being elected mayor, forcing his family to relocate, and has been bullied by Labor apparatchiks.
He was elected mayor in November, winning the votes of seven of 11 councillors.
Two months later, he entered the race as an independent candidate in the byelection for the state seat of Werribee, about 60 kilometres from Whittlesea. Werribee goes to the polls on February 8.
Since announcing his candidacy, McLindon has argued councils should be compelled to hold citizenship ceremonies on January 26, and joined with gangland figure Mick Gatto in pushing for mandatory self-defence training in Victorian primary and secondary schools.
The regular media appearances and social media comments led Whittlesea’s freshly elected councillors to turn against the man they elected mayor just nine weeks ago at a closed-door meeting on Tuesday night.
McLindon’s candidacy in the Werribee byelection has received the surprise endorsement of crime figure Mick Gatto.
According to the minutes of the meeting, 10 councillors voted to make an urgent application to Local Government Minister Nick Staikos to expedite an internal arbitration process for McLindon, who chaired the meeting and abstained from the vote.
Penalties for breaching the code of conduct range from making a formal apology to being suspended or even stripped of mayoral duties.
McLindon fielded a team of candidates who ran in every ward in November’s local government elections, pushing policies including a rates freeze and “child-appropriate public spaces and libraries”.
One of McLindon’s candidates, Nicholas Brooks, was elected in Thomastown ward. Brooks voted for arbitration on Tuesday night.
The City of Whittlesea did not have an elected council between 2020 and 2024. The previous council was sacked by the state government on the advice of municipal monitor Yehudi Blacher, who reported that governance had collapsed amid toxic factional infighting.
The Allan government introduced a new model councillor code of conduct in October, which sets rigid guidelines about commenting in the media and on social media.
McLindon declined to comment about Tuesday’s vote.
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