Kingborough Council: Impasse after Aldo Antolli said ‘thank god’ when Gideon Cordover finished speaking

The Kingborough Council’s Monday meeting reached a stalemate after one councillor was offended by a comment made by his colleague. The two words that left the council at an impasse.

The Kingborough Council was left at an impasse on Monday after a councillor refused to withdraw two words, which offended his colleague.

After Gideon Cordover finished speaking about an item on the agenda, he quickly returned to call a point of order, accusing Aldo Antolli of uttering two words which he said were offensive.

“Absolute offence just then. As soon as I finished my contribution, Cr Antolli unprofessionally said ‘thank god’. That’s what he just said, and I take offence to that,” Mr Cordover said.

Kingborough mayor, Paula Wriedt, who was chairing the meeting, asked Mr Antolli if he’d like to withdraw the comment.

“I’m sorry he is offended and I don’t withdraw,” Mr Antolli said.

Kingborough councillor Aldo Antolli at the Margate Train in 2022.

“Are you sure you don’t want to rethink that, in the spirit of Christmas?” Ms Wriedt asked.

“Given I just thanked god, I was in the spirit of Christmas,” Mr Antolli replied.

Mr Cordover urged the mayor to act.

“Is there a ruling on that point of order … I’m a councillor, I’m an elected councillor and I take offence to that,” Mr Cordover said.

“And you wouldn’t expect it in state parliament, you wouldn’t expect it in any other local government chamber around this state, would you?”

Kingborough councillor Gideon Cordover at Margate. Picture: Chris Kidd

Mr Wriedt was unsure how to proceed.

“I would tend to agree that was an unnecessary comment,” she said.

“I accept your point of order, I just can’t get an explanation from what I am looking at to see what I am able to do about it”

She consulted with the council’s general manager, who was also stumped.

“Other councils have ejected members for doing that recently, that’s been the outcome,” Mr Cordover said.

“All they would have to do is withdraw what they said.”

After a minute and a half of searching for the answer, Mr Antolli reconsidered.

“I’m happy to, for the sake of the audience watching, I’m happy to withdraw the statement of ‘thank god’ when he finished speaking,” Mr Antolli said.

The stalemate came after the mayor had already urged councillors to get along for the last meeting.

“We’re only 50 minutes into the meeting, it’s the last one of the year and I think we should finish it in the way that we started that is very collegially, so let’s just try and be friends tonight,” she said earlier in the meeting.