Mayors behaving badly

One on drink drive charge, another fined

A CAPE York leader says the political fates of two indigenous mayors who were caught out on the wrong side of the law on New Year’s Day will ultimately be decided by their communities.

Kowanyama Mayor Michael Yam, 45, is due to face court on January 18 after he was charged with allegedly drink driving more than four times the legal limit.

Cr Yam was pulled over by police on Tulathulum St, Kow- anyama, just before 6pm on January 1.

On the same day, Aurukun Mayor Dereck Walpo was issued by police with a ticket for public nuisance, in regards to alleged disorderly conduct in the town’s Kang Kang Rd.

He was required to pay a $378 fine.

Hope Vale Mayor Greg McLean, who was pulled over by police the week before Christmas – and a passenger in his vehicle charged for being over the strict alcohol carriage limit outside his township – claims that police have been deliberately targeting indigenous leaders in order to make an example out of them.

Cape York Land Council chairman Richie Ah Mat, however, said the law needed to be followed by everyone. “The law is the law,” he said. “If you break the law, you pay the consequences.

“Those laws are there to help the community.”

Ah Mat said the political fates of both mayors would ultimately be decided by their communities.

“It’s the community to decide whether it’s a bad look (for those elected officials),” he said.

“It’s up to the communities to address that.

“They’re put there by the community in the first place.”

According to Queensland’s Local Government Act 2009, a mayor or councillor can be suspended or dismissed from their elected role if the Minister believes the mayor or councillor has seriously or continuously breached local government principles.

Local Government Minister Stirling Hinchliffe declined to comment specifically on the incidents of mayors breaking the law, as one of the matters would be before the court.

“I expect all public officials to abide by the law and act in line with community standards,” he said.

It’s not the first time North Queensland mayors have landed in trouble with police.

In 2013, Palm Island mayor Alf Lacey was fined $100 for alleged sly-grogging.

And in 2011, former Mount Isa Mayor John Molony was fined $2000 and disqualified from driving for four months after being caught drink driving at more than twice the legal limit.

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