Dorset Mayor Greg Howard launches three appeals to overturn Code of Conduct Panel rulings

A mayor is currently involved in multiple court cases seeking to overturn adverse findings made against him by Tasmania’s Code of Conduct Panel. He says he’s fighting for all councillors.

Mayor Greg Howard, of Tasmania's Dorset Council.

A Tasmanian mayor is currently involved in multiple court appeals, all of which seek to overturn adverse findings made against him by the state’s Councillor Code of Conduct Panel.

Dorset Mayor Greg Howard has two ongoing administrative appeals in the Launceston Magistrates Court and a separate case in Hobart Supreme Court contesting both panel decisions but attacking them on a different legal basis.

The two Magistrates Court matters involve Mr Howard contesting adverse findings made against him by the panel on the basis he was denied natural justice, the only ground on which appeals can be made under the Local Government Act 2003.

The separate complaints in which the panel found Mr Howard had breached the Dorset Councillor Code of Conduct were made by Scottsdale resident Karl Willrath and Bridport man Lawrence Archer, both long-term adversaries of Mr Howard’s.

Mr Archer is a former mayor of George Town, a former Dorset councillor, and the father-in-law of current federal Bass MP Bridget Archer.

Mr Archer complained on September 30, 2020, that Mr Howard had caused him “offence or embarrassment,” and failed to treat him fairly in a letter to the editor published by the North-Eastern Advertiser, thereby breaching Part 7 of the Dorset code.

The letter was part of an ongoing feud between Mr Howard and Mr Archer which had simmered for many years and came to a head that month in the midst of a newspaper article and four other letters rebutting each other’s claims.

Former George Town mayor and Dorset councillor Lawrence Archer. Picture: File

On March 23, 2021, the panel “strongly reprimanded” Mr Howard and “[reminded] him of his responsibility as a public official” after finding Mr Archer’s complaint proven.

Last week, Launceston Magistrate Simon Brown made an early ruling against Mr Howard in the appeal of the matter involving Mr Archer, declining an application to adjourn the appeal until after the Supreme Court had made its ruling on the parallel appeal.

Mr Cox described the Supreme Court action as the “main game” for his client, Mr Brown said.

He declined the application on the basis that “much work in [this] matter has been well and truly done, the issues are clear and limited,” and that the two cases involve different questions of law.

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He will begin hearing the matter as planned on June 16.

Mr Howard sought judicial review of the panel’s decision in the matter involving Mr Archer’s complaint on 14 grounds, most of which Mr Brown has now dismissed.

The remaining grounds appeal include that the panel was biased, that the hearing should have been held in person, that Ms Taylor, and that Mr Howard was denied procedural fairness.

In the Supreme Court, Mr Howard seeks to challenge the panel’s determinations on the basis of comments Mr Brown made in a separate administrative appeal involving a complaint made by Mr Willrath.

In overturning the panel’s finding that Mr Howard had breached the code, Mr Brown, in comments delivered on December 17, 2019, said that the section of code found to have been breached was “highly restrictive of the ability of councillors to express views and argue about matters of public concern or debate”.

Mr Howard told the Mercury that he was appealing the two panel determinations as a “matter of principle.

“This is not just for me, I’m fighting a case for every councillor in Tasmania,” he said.

Originally published as Dorset Mayor Greg Howard launches three appeals to overturn Code of Conduct Panel rulings