Local Government Minister Kerry Vincent says draft legislation to crack down on councillor misconduct, which includes their removal by an independent tribunal, will soon be released to the public.
There has been debate over a number of years that the rules governing councillor misconduct are sufficient and penalties for code of conduct breaches are insufficient.
It was recently revealed by Burnie City Council general manager Shane Crawford that there had been more than 100 complaints made about councillor Trent Aitken so far this year.
More recently, the outspoken councillor has expressed views on transgender people that have been deemed offensive to that community.
A petition, started by North-West resident Alysa Polden, has been circulated that calls on Cr Aitken to resign from the Burnie City Council.
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It has requested that the council lobby the Local Government Association of Tasmania and state government to empower the Local Government Minister to dismiss a councillor for breaching the Anti-Discrimination Act.
Ms Polden said she believed that it was important that an elected councillor be held to account for “hate speech” as any other elected politician would be.
“If you are in the public eye and have a public platform, you need to be responsible for what you say and make sure you are not making anti-discriminatory comments,” she said.
“Growing up, I’ve seen a much different conversation about the LGBTIQA+ community and getting rid of stereotypes and stigma, and then things like this happen and you realise that we have so much further to go.”
Mr Vincent was approached for an interview about whether a minister should have the power to remove a councillor if they were deemed to have seriously breached the Local Government Code of Conduct or presented the council on which they served with an unworkable situation.
He declined, but in a statement, Mr Vincent said the government had recently proposed new provisions to deal with serious councillor misconduct under the code, which was established in 2016.
“These matters would be heard and determined by the Tasmanian Administrative and Civil Tribunal, which would be given the power to dismiss a councillor in certain circumstances,” he said.
“This would not be an appropriate role for the minister to play, and its vital we keep decisions like this completely independent.”
He said a draft bill incorporating these amendments would be released in the coming weeks.
Labor’s local government spokeswoman Anita Dow said the code of conduct process needed improvement.
“There has been strong advocacy for improvement from local government and our community for a long time,” she said.
“I understand the government is currently consulting on changes to the Local Government Act in relation to councillor conduct, which we are currently considering.
“Ultimately, the community has the final say when it comes to deciding who represents them, and that’s very important.”
Source: The Advocate
https://www.theadvocate.com.au/story/8955848/new-law-to-tackle-councillor-misconduct-in-tasmania