Former councillor accused of leaks faces former colleagues at hearing

A former Dorset councillor come whistleblower has faced his former colleagues at his hearing in Launceston.

A HEARING into an allegation that a former Dorset councillor leaked confidential information to a regional newspaper was held on Thursday.

Self-proclaimed whistleblower, Lawrence John Archer, 69, from Bridport, previously pleaded not guilty to ‘disclosure of information’ to the North East Advertiser in the form of documents detailing the financial state of a Scottsdale aged care home.

Information from those documents appeared in two articles published by the Advertiser in 2017.

Mr Archer appeared in Launceston Magistrates Court on Thursday before Magistrate Ken Stanton.

The Director of Local Government has alleged Mr Archer provided two profit and loss statements and a forecast budget for the aged care facility known as Aminya, which council was “involved with” and absorbing its losses to keep it running.

Lawyer Emily Bill said it was the prosecution case that those documents were provided to councillors under the condition of privacy and confidentiality ahead of a closed workshop.

She said the documents were given to councillors in, or in connection with closed council meetings or from the council’s General Manager under the condition they be kept confidential.

It was the defence case that those same documents were also sent without the condition of confidentiality to board members of an incorporated charity set up by council and were therefore not confidential as they were available elsewhere.

Council’s general manager Timothy Watson gave evidence at the hearing.

He said Dorset Council took over administration of Aminya from Presbyterian Care Tasmania in 2015 after it was announced the failing facility would be closed.

Council decided to merge Scottsdale’s two aged care facilities to make them viable.

It set up the incorporated charity North East Care (NEC) to act as ‘a clearing house’ and facilitate the exchange of payments between council and May Shaw – the organisation incorporating Aminya and James Scott aged care homes.

Mr Watson, who was an NEC board member along with Dorset Mayor Greg Howard, Mr Archer’s wife Gayle Archer and former deputy mayor Max Hall, agreed the documents sent out to board members were not marked ‘confidential’ and board members were not told the information was to be kept private.

He said documents provided to councillors for closed meetings began being marked confidential at some point, but he could not remember if it was before or after Mr Archer provided the documents to the newspaper.

Cr Howard, former deputy mayor Hall and Mrs Archer all gave evidence.

Mrs Archer told the court she received financial documents from May Shaw by email and in hard copy ahead of board meetings.

She said the documents were not marked confidential and she would take them home and her husband was one of NEC’s 140-150 members.

A record of interview conducted by investigators from the Local Government Division conducted with Mr Archer was played in court.

“It’s the public’s money that we were dealing with and the council was subsidising Aminya and I don’t think the public knew how substantial an amount it was,” Mr Archer said in the interview.

Dorset Council passed a no-confidence motion against Mr Archer in 2017.

He did not recontest his seat at the 2018 local government election.

All evidence in the hearing has now been heard.

The case was adjourned to April 2.