Hobart Lord Mayor Anna Reynolds cautioned over code of conduct breach involving Louise Elliot

It’s been found Hobart Lord Mayor Anna Reynolds breached the code of conduct, after an interaction with now councillor Louise Elliot last year. What the code of conduct panel said.

Hundreds gathered for a public meeting into the UTAS move in the CBD.

Hobart Lord Mayor Anna Reynolds has been cautioned after she breached the code of conduct in an interaction, involving now councillor Louise Elliot, at a public meeting in May last year.

The meeting was held to discuss the University of Tasmania’s intention to move its Hobart campus from Sandy Bay to the CBD.

During the meeting, Ms Elliot spoke against the move.

An interaction with the mayor after her speech has since been the centre of a code of conduct complaint, the findings of which have now been released.

“[Ms Reynolds] physically grabbed me by the arm and pulled me toward her so I was uncomfortably close as I tried to walk past her to return to my seat after speaking,” Ms Elliot said in a statutory declaration in May.

“[Ms Reynolds] verbally declared, so that several people around her could hear, that what I was saying “is all lies”, essentially calling me a liar, which was heard by many people in

her vicinity.”

She also accused Ms Reynolds of saying “bullshit”.

In a statutory declaration from September, Ms Reynolds said the physical interaction was not a grab, but a light touch on the forearm.

She denied calling Ms Elliot a ‘liar’, but agreed she had said the word ‘bullshit’ during the exchange.

Anna Reynolds Lord Mayor of Hobart. Picture: Nikki Davis-Jones

In the days following the meeting, Ms Reynolds issued a public apology to Ms Elliot. She said she regretted using the word ‘bullshit’, and that it was “unnecessary and inappropriate”.

Ms Elliot did not accept the apology.

As the code of conduct panel investigated the complaint against Ms Reynolds, there were 18 people who provided accounts of what happened, but the panel said there was little corroborating evidence.

Hobart City councillor Louise Elliot. Picture: Chris Kidd

The panel said witness accounts significantly varied on the type of contact, whether it had been forceful, how long it occurred and who said ‘bullshit’.

It was unable to find that the contact was forceful, or that the mayor pulled Ms Elliot down toward her.

“It was clearly apparent to the panel during the hearing the asserted political motivations by each party figured prominently in each case,” the panel said.

But the panel found Ms Reynolds had beached the code of conduct because she treated Ms Elliot differently to the other speakers.

It upheld complaints that Ms Reynolds had not treated Ms Elliot fairly, had caused Ms Elliot offence and embarrassment and had brought her own office into disrepute.

It also found Ms Reynolds’ conduct reflected or had the potential to reflect, adversely on the reputation of the council.

But the allegation Ms Reynolds had bullied or harassed Ms Elliot was dismissed.

“Cr Reynolds is an experienced elected member and mayor and by her own admission, should not have approached Ms Elliot during the public meeting in the way the panel has found she did,” the panel said.

“Although the panel accepts Cr Reynolds made an apology to Ms Elliot in the days following this event, the panel has determined that a caution is an appropriate sanction in these circumstances.”