Andrew McCullagh: Northern Midlands councillor suspended for bullying, improper use of office

A Tasmanian councillor has been suspended after the Code of Conduct Panel found he bullied the council’s general manager, as well as used his office improperly to try and get a defamation case dropped.

Northern Midlands Councillor Andrew McCullagh, a property developer born in Longford. Picture: Facebook

A Tasmanian councillor has been suspended after a panel found he bullied the council’s general manager, as well as used his office improperly to try and get a defamation case dropped.

Property developer Andrew McCullagh, who was elected to Northern Midlands Council at last year’s local government elections, has been suspended by the Code of Conduct Panel for a period of 21 days, effective Tuesday.

Mr McCullagh has filed a notice of appeal with the Magistrates Court Administrative Appeals Division. He is allowed at law to challenge the decision on the basis he was denied natural justice.

Details of the complaint, which was made by Director of Local Government Mathew Healey, were published in the council’s agenda for its upcoming general meeting.

The complaint related to a “constant barrage [of] aggressive and unreasonable” emails sent by Mr McCullagh to general manager Des Jennings, Northern Midlands Mayor Mary Knowles, and Mr Healey – with people including Premier Jeremy Rockliff, Local Government Minister Nic Street and others frequently copied into the missives.

According to the panel’s determination report, Ms Knowles became “very concerned about the workplace health and safety of Mr Jennings,” due to the constant stream of communications, some of which implied that he was corrupt.

Mayor Mary Knowles, Northern Midlands Council

Ms Knowles told the panel at its hearing that Mr McCullagh’s behaviour “totally affected people at council, both staff and some councillors”.

“Cr Knowles admitted that her mental health had been affected by the intensity and offensiveness of Cr McCullagh’s constant emails,” the panel’s report said.

Mr Jennings, meanwhile, informed the panel he “continually felt harassed”.

“Mr Jennings said that many of the emails sent to him by Cr McCullagh made several allegations questioning his integrity and caused embarrassment especially as these were being circulated to the Premier, the Minister for Local Government and others,” the panel’s report said.

The panel made a number of findings against Mr McCullagh.

It found that Mr McCullagh, in some of his emails, “sought to take advantage of his office as a councillor to improperly influence Cr Knowles, Mr Jennings and his fellow councillors in order to gain an improper benefit for himself,” that benefit being the discontinuation of two ongoing legal matters that remain before the courts.

The two ongoing matters are a council allegation that Mr McCullagh used council’s intellectual property unlawfully when he ran the ‘Northern Midlands Council Watch’ page prior to his election, and an unrelated defamation action brought by Ms Knowles and Mr Jennings against Mr McCullagh.

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The panel found Mr McCullagh’s communications with Mr Healey, Mr Jennings and Ms Knowles were not only “offensive,” they were also “aggressive, degrading, threatening and intimidating”.

It further found that Mr McCullagh harassed both Ms Knowles and Mr Jennings, with the conduct against Mr Jennings amounting to bullying.

The panel, in its report, said that while suspension was a drastic step, especially for a councillor with no prior breaches, it considered that no other punishment would act as a deterrent for the unrepentant Mr McCullagh.

In a statement on Wednesday afternoon publicising Mr McCullagh’s suspension, Ms Knowles said she was pleased the panel had addressed the “issue of wild, offensive and unsubstantiated allegations made against councillors and staff, particularly the General Manager Des Jennings”.