Council walkout furore

HOBART’S Lord Mayor will consult with the Director of Local Government after five aldermen walked out of a meeting to prevent debate on an urgent notice of motion.

A Hobart City Council debate on State Government anti-protest legislation descended into shouting on Monday night.

Councillor Bill Harvey put an urgent notice of motion to the meeting calling on the council to write to all State Parliament members strongly urging them to oppose controversial anti-protest laws.

A group of aldermen had threatened to walk out over the motion, arguing it was politicking by the Greens.

They initially stayed and the meeting became bogged down in procedural motions around the original motion.

Cr Harvey said he put forward the motion because he was concerned council sites could be impacted by the laws, which include heavy penalties for people who interfere with business operations.

Cr Reynolds adjourned the meeting at 9.30pm when members started shouting over one another. She said there was eventually a walkout by five aldermen — understood to be Simon Behrakis, Tanya Denison, Jeff Briscoe, Damon Thomas and Marti Zucco — and she would be contacting Director of Local Government Alex Tay for further advice.

Cr Reynolds had written to Mr Tay prior to the meeting about the potential walk out.

In his written response, Mr Tay advised that there was nothing in the Local Government Act to prevent a councillor leaving a meeting, but councillors deliberately leaving to create a lack of a quorum and prevent debate was “unusual”.

“If this occurred regularly, it would be a cause for concern with regard to the ability of a council to discharge its function,” he wrote.

“This would be particularly the case where a council was unable to make decisions statutorily required of it, or where there are significant implications for the community and ratepayers.”

Alderman Zucco said for him the walk out was because the meeting had become “undemocratic”.

“We all took part in the debate, but the Lord Mayor wouldn’t allow us to ask more questions and was shutting us down trying to force a vote so I said it was undemocratic and left the chamber and the others did the same,” he said.