By Adam Carey & Noel Towell
Four Greens councillors in Melbourne’s inner-north, including the Mayor of Darebin, have been confirmed as among the 18 party members who tried to take out their own candidate for the recent Batman byelection before the race had even started.
Darebin Mayor Kim Le Cerf and councillors Trent McCarthy, Steph Amir and Susanne Newton face calls for their expulsion from the Greens over their alleged roles in the sabotage of the failed campaign of candidate Alex Bhathal.
Cr Trent McCarthy. Photograph by Chris HopkinsCredit: Chris Hopkins
The Greens have never expelled a sitting councillor or MP.
The four were among 18 signatories to a 101-page complaint against Ms Bhathal that was delivered to party authorities in the run-up to the byelection and then leaked to the media once the campaign was under way.
An official party process looked at the complaints and cleared Ms Bhathal of any wrongdoing.
The Age does not suggest any of the four councillors leaked the document.
However, supporters of Ms Bhathal have called on all 16 signatories of the document who remain Greens members to quit the party, alleging that the complaint was more about settling personal scores within the party’s Darebin branch, with the central aim of removing Ms Bhathal as the candidate for Batman.
All four of the Darebin Greens councillors were contacted for comment on Friday, with only Cr McCarthy responding and declining to comment.
The Age understands that Ms Bhathal has still not been shown the complaint, under the rules of the grievance process followed by the complainants, but the candidate declined to comment when contacted on Friday.
Furious members of the Darebin branch, the largest Greens branch in the country, moved at a meeting on Wednesday to have the 16 remaining signatories resign from the party or face expulsion.
At a heated branch meeting at the SPAN Community House in Thornbury on Wednesday, Greens members agreed to await the outcome of the official party investigation into the Batman loss.
But Ms Bhathal’s supporters say they want justice for the candidate and will be reluctant to accept any outcome from the official review that does not include the ultimate sanction against her tormentors.
The 101-page document reveals a toxic relationship existed between Ms Bhathal and the four Darebin councillors, characterised by mutual distrust.
The report contains allegation that portray the Greens’ largest branch as a heavily factionalised group in which members were undermined, intimidated and even harassed.