Given the commissars of Darebin City Council have mandated that every formal interaction, however trifling, begin with an acknowledgment of country, I have decided to follow their lead, seeing they are this week’s subject.
Hence, I acknowledge this council, like all those of inner-city Melbourne and its immediate surrounds, is a waste of space and a haven of progressive lunacy.
I pay my respects to the residents forced to indulge the activist plonkers who occupy its chambers. I also acknowledge the right of ratepayers to a fair return for their dollar was never ceded. As for the councillors who hold otherwise, you always were and always will be nothing but posturing freeloaders.
Which brings me to the case of Shaun Turner, 60, a streetsweeper whom the Fair Work Commission found last week had been unlawfully dismissed last year by the council.
This was noteworthy in several respects. It is nigh impossible to be sacked in local government, unless you are caught red-handed committing a grievous breach, such as taking bribes or crashing a council truck after having a skinful.
But Turner did not so much as pinch a council paperclip. Neither his integrity nor his performance were in question. He merely disputed why it was necessary to open a meeting of the street cleaning team with an acknowledgment of country. For this, he lost his job.
His sacking was all the more ludicrous because he was one of the few council employees who perform useful work for the community. But this council’s priority is cultural cleansing.
Take, for instance, an excerpt from the council’s 2023-24 annual report.
It proudly declares it, in conjunction with local Indigenous advisers, has “progressed the decolonisation of Bundoora Park and the opening of a Truth Telling display at Bundoora Homestead”.
Unfortunately, council took umbrage at Turner’s truth-telling. He said he recognised there was a time and a place for council conducting acknowledgments of country, but only for special occasions. His explanation was not accepted.
Even a weekly toolbox meeting has to be decolonised, you see. The need for an acknowledgment of country is so obvious that any employee who questions it acts with malicious intent. Their actions could embolden other dissenters; therefore, they must result in the strongest possible sanction.
This is ideological absolutism in the guise of reconciliation and harmony. As Fair Work Commission deputy president Richard Clancy noted in his decision, the council’s case “effectively rested on the premise that its employees must, without question, both subscribe and adhere to its views when it comes to acknowledgments of country”.
But the council’s agenda went a lot further than ensuring an uninterrupted creed recital. As Clancy also observed, its submissions implied dismissal was permissible “if an employee fails to act in complete deference to their employer’s views and, moreover, does not adopt them” (emphasis added).
In other words, council employees must expressly affirm an activist cause that has nothing to do with their job description, else there’s the door. In a nod to workplace sanity, these authoritarian propositions were rejected.
In response, Darebin chief executive Michael Tudball said the council “respects the court process and authority” of the commission.
“We want to take this opportunity to reiterate our unwavering commitment to providing everyone with a safe working environment at Darebin,” he said. “That includes physical safety, cultural safety and emotional safety.”
Well, that’s just splendid, isn’t it? We force our political ideology on our employees and sack those who object, but let me assure you our commitment to providing a safe working environment for all remains unwavering.
I do not suppose it occurred to Tudball – who, incidentally, enjoys a taxpayer-funded salary of about $500,000 – that a better way of demonstrating his commitment would be to apologise to Turner and reinstate him immediately.
After all, this is a council that is dedicated to atoning for historical wrongs. For example, it signed a formal statement of commitment in 2019 with local Indigenous representatives that “affirms the positive forward movement towards … institutional integrity, historical acceptance through truth-telling and unity”.
Over to you, Michael Tudball. Let’s see you apply your principles of reconciliation to council’s actions in this case, shall we?
First of all, council must publicly acknowledge it unlawfully dispossessed Turner of his livelihood. It will apologise not only to him and his family but also to the wider Darebin community for abusing its power and wasting public money in trying to defend its unconscionable conduct.
Second, it must also acknowledge Turner’s strength and resilience in successfully fighting for justice. The council will hold regular public sessions honouring Turner to this effect, emphasising he represented himself at a hearing against the might of the state.
Third, the council must commit to truth-telling in this affair. This will be a painful process but essential if council is to restore institutional integrity. It must be held by way of public hearings. All of council’s senior employees will be compelled to answer questions on oath regarding Turner’s dismissal. Think of it as a municipal Makarrata.
Fourth, council will acknowledge that employees have self-determination when it comes to acknowledgments of country. They can choose not to be present when they are held. Council will also abolish other workplace policies that usurp the right of employees to their private political beliefs. This will be known as the “decouncilling” process.
Fifth, every council leadership meeting from now on will begin with an acknowledgment that managers will do better and educate themselves about the proper role of local government.
And finally, the regular meeting of council employees who perform manual labour will be known simply as the workers meeting. Keep it simple.
But let’s not dispense with the title of weekly toolbox meeting. If anyone deserves that moniker, it is the decision-makers of Darebin council.
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