Darwin Council and the Mayor’s actions against councillor Amye Un may be unconstitutional, a leading law and politics academic has said, suggesting council has failed to follow proper process for dealing with a simple code of conduct complaint issue that has now exploded into an elected member being barred from attending meetings in person.
Questions have also been raised about the appropriateness of a formal complaint by Mayor Kon Vatskalis against Ms Un to the Local Government Association of the NT – a body in which Mr Vatskalis sits as president.
Ms Un was issued with a trespass notice by council’s head security guard on Tuesday that banned her from attending all council premises – including council chambers and all city libraries – after he claimed comments by Ms Un posted on two different Facebook posts amounted to threats to kill the chief executive officer and other council staff.
However, if Mr Vatskalis and staff held real concerns that Ms Un was making legitimate threats, there are other steps they could have taken to address the issue, a legal academic said.
“If someone makes an actual threat, the proper process is an apprehended violence order,” said University of Queensland Law Professor Graeme Orr.
“Or a council can eject a member for unruly conduct during its assembly, but that is a decision for the council as a whole.
“Otherwise, councillors have a right to attend council meetings and their office.”
Ms Un was issued the trespass order, which claimed it was in effect for one year, before Mr Vatskalis’s formal complaint to the LGANT had been dealt with.
Ms Un was also not provided the right to defend herself before the ban was issued, which could also be a breach of due process.
Mr Vatskalis’s LGANT complaint was in relation to a Facebook post Ms Un made on her personal page, in which she was critical of the Labor Government granting former alderman Paul Arnold a $100,000 grant to upgrade his Darwin photography business after he had been issued a domestic violence order. She had argued the grant should be broken into smaller grants and given to struggling small businesses. Mr Arnold has indicated he will plead not guilty to the charges.
Mr Vatskalis claimed Ms Un had breached conflict of interest rules when she sarcastically suggested befriending Small Business Minister “Mr Paul Kirby and other zombies” so she could get a government grant and also said he was offended by Mr Kirby being called a “zombie”.
Mr Vatskalis’s complaint also referenced the “threatening” Facebook posts, in which Ms Un wrote that Council CEO Simone Saunders should resign for telling her in a letter to take down her original post critical of the government.
“You stab me at the back, I will stab you in the front so you know who I’m [sic],” she wrote at the end of the post calling for her resignation.
The trespass notice stated that was “a direct threat to stab” the CEO and another post in which Ms Un referenced going to “war” with Mr Vatskalis at the LGANT with a “gun alredy full up with bullets[sic]” was determined by head security guard Reese Ravlich to be an “indirect threat” to murder council staff.
It was unclear why the ban was put into effect before the complaint had been heard and why Ms Un was not provided the right to respond to the allegations before the trespass order was enacted.
Prof Orr said the code of conduct complaint could have been handled by Darwin Council, but cautioned that sanctions for “offensive political speech” or “bad language” are unconstitutional.
“A code of conduct complaint can be heard quickly by a sub-committee of Council. But it can only reprimand or force someone to take counselling,” he said.
“Alternatively, the complaint to the LGA panel can take up to 90 days: it requires natural justice and is usually public.
“That panel can suspend a councillor, but only for serious breaches of the code – eg wilful and actual bullying/intimidation.
“Merely discourteous or bad language is at most a matter for reprimand. Hard sanctions for offensive political speech are not constitutional in Australia.”
Mr Vatskalis and Ms Saunders have refused to answer the NT Independent’s questions, including about allegations by Ms Un that they had bullied and intimidated her to prevent her from criticising the Fyles Labor Government.
On ABC Radio Darwin yesterday afternoon, Mr Vatskalis denied he had anything to do with banning Ms Un from council premises.
“The problem is in social media, it doesn’t matter what you say, it’s what the readers believe,” he said. “And the problem is a number of our staff went to this security manager and tell him that they feel very threatened.
“Elected members cannot, under the legislation, cannot issue or ask someone for a trespass [order]. So it’s clearly operational matter, has nothing to do with the Lord Mayor or other elected members, it’s because of the concern of the staff are concerned about their safety.”
Councillor Jimmy Bohouris told the NT Independent that he and other councillors were expecting to receive a report on the saga at next Tuesday’s council meeting.
“As councillors, we’re all concerned about this and are currently awaiting a report into the matter to be delivered at Tuesday’s council meeting,” he said.
Mr Vatskalis claimed Ms Un would be provided with a video link to attend council meetings remotely, however Ms Un said the link they sent her on Tuesday night did not work.
Resign immediately???
Are you kidding? How many homeless and starving can we put with in the NT?
Chairman Kon (or 伊迪奥特 as he is referred to in CCP circles) cant do anything but eat other peoples money! I wonder how well his translation services did before firmly attaching himself to the Government teat?
Last election, he was unopposed. Next election there will be a suite of understandable, non-melomaniac, non CCP linked candidates