Dear Local Government Minister Nic Street,
We are writing to you to request that your government establish an urgent Parliamentary Inquiry into the toxic culture at Hobart City Council.
The Australian article published on 3 May 2024 below, outlines just some of the serious questions of probity at the Hobart City Council concerning the ongoing harassment, vilification, and discrimination against Cr Louise Elliot. This issue highlights ongoing broader discriminatory actions by HCC against ratepayers who wish to hire HCC venues or participate in Council Committees or stakeholder consultations. The orchestrated campaign against Cr Elliot has been largely orchestrated by the current Lord Mayor and former Deputy Mayor Helen Burnet but also supported by Cr Dutta, Cr Sherlock, Cr Harvey, Cr Lohberger, Cr Posselt, and Cr Fox.
Given the former CEO Kelly Grigsby resigned from HCC along with 3 or more other staff recently, and it is understood many other staff over recent years have also left, we believe there are very serious matters that concern a toxic culture at HCC where some have come to believe they are ‘untouchable’, especially the Lord Mayor Anna Reynolds. We understand that some of these actions by Councillors (and some members of staff) towards Cr Louise Elliot, and Women Speak Tasmania, have resulted in the HCC becoming an unsafe environment for HCC employees and some Councillors to continue to work in.
We consider a Parliamentary Inquiry needs to investigate whether over a period of years these actions by some Councillors and some staff may breach various laws:
• Local Government Act
• Anti-Discrimination Act
• Right to Information Act
• Archives Act
In addition, The Australian Article 18.5.24 (below) exposes more RTI documents which show ongoing discriminatory and hostile actions by the Lord Mayor Anna Reynolds in collusion with Rodney Croome from Equality Tasmania to prevent Cr Elliot from hiring the Hobart Town Hall.
RTI documents previously obtained by Women Speak Tasmanian (attached) concerning conduct of the Lord Mayor Anna Reynolds regarding a public forum held 26 February 2022 at the Town Hall (Coalition for Biological Reality forum on Gender Law Reforms), prove that Anna Reynolds made personal contact with Working It Out in order to encourage and enable action to harass and intimidate participants of this conference.
Given the initial failure of Council to hand over all documents to Cr Elliot under RTI, that resulted in the Ombudsman stepping in after the ‘whistleblower’ information came to light, Women Speak Tasmania now realise that the HCC, under the current culture of secrecy, subterfuge, and harassment, cannot be relied on, in good faith, to release information under the normal RTI process. The HCC is operating under a huge veil of secrecy to evade public scrutiny from the reality of internal machinations at HCC that would make Niccolo Machiavelli pale.
In addition, the Lord Mayor, Cr Burnet, and Cr Fox voted at a Council meeting to ban the said forum from going ahead. The vote was lost 9-3. Cr Fox even attempted to have WST banned from speaking at any Council meetings. Repeated questions to Council meetings failed to get honest and direct answers from the Lord Mayor and then CEO Kelly Grigsby concerning the Lord Mayor’s or CEO Grisby’s interventions in this matter. Only on
receipt of the RTI was the extent of the attempt to cover the actions of the Lord Mayor and other staff revealed. We are of the belief that the ‘whistleblower’ in the current Cr Elliot matter may be the same person at HCC who was put under duress by the Lord Mayor and Senior Management to participate in this serious misconduct.
We also take this opportunity to raise the serious matter which was investigated by the Tasmanian Integrity Commission last year after a complaint from Cr Louise Elliot about direct appointments to Council.
From Cr Elliot in Minutes of HCC Meeting P 114-118 Item No. 22Agenda (Open Portion) Council Meeting Page11628/8/2023:
“The Integrity Commission recognises the importance of open and merit-based recruitment and highlights recruitment related misconduct risks, including those related to long-term appointments being made through direct appointment processes to evade competitive merit-based recruitment. The Integrity Commission also notes the risks associated with ineffectively managed conflicts of interest, nepotism, and favouritism.
The Council has a duty to the community and its workforce to ensure that the organisation is appointing the best people to roles and that processes are fair. The City of Hobart is a public organisation, and it is appropriate that the organisation provides the community with fair and reasonable opportunity to gain employment with the organisation that serves.”
We would also like to raise our concerns about the potential for conflict of interest regarding the panel membership of the Code of Conduct tribunal especially given one of their findings made against Cr Louise Elliot, which was appealed by Cr Elliot, the decision overturned and referred to tribunal for reinvestigation. WST has put in 3 Code of Conduct complaints, and eventually felt the CoC was biased towards a particular view on the issues in contention.
It is not only the culture within HCC that needs to be investigated but in fact the cause of the institutionalisation of a culture that is anything but inclusive and diverse. A culture that thrives on demonising people who don’t conform to a particular world view, a culture that promotes vigilante style vendettas against those who do not conform to group think. A culture that will continue relentlessly to make complaints to various bodies about ‘opponents’ until they buckle under the constant legal pressures and severe distress.
We request to meet with you to discuss these serious legal matters we have raised in this email and that you will consider establishing a Parliamentary Inquiry forthwith.
Yours sincerely,
Cassandra Colefax
Women Speak Tasmania