City councillors on notice to behave in the chamber

A change to Hume City Council rules, that allow for councillors to be ejected from a meeting if they are deemed disruptive by the chair, has been adopted.

Cllr Carly Moore (Aitken ward) proposed the change at a 27 May meeting. Subsequent public consultation on the proposal saw 82 Hume City residents vote on the proposal with 74 (90%) opposing it and eight (10%) supporting it.

Batting this away at a Monday 22 July council meeting, Cllr Moore said the lack of support from the public is because they did not understand the question.

The question was: The Chair may order and cause the removal of any person whose words or actions disrupts any meeting or who fails to comply with a direction given under sub-Rule 71.2.
Answer yes or no.

“The results of the community consultation suggests that there may be some in the community who do not understand what the notice of motion was actually requesting,” said Cllr Moore.

“I am not trying to give the mayor [chair] any powers that they don’t already have. This is just administrative, and I am only making sure that our governance rules what is legislated.”

Deputy mayor Cllr Karen Sherry said the change is part of good governance and leadership to amend the council’s rules, and thanked Cllr Moore for raising the idea.

“I see many are opposed to the amendment, but it is already there in law,” said Cllr Sherry.

Cllr Jack Medcraft spoke in support of the proposal saying if anyone misbehaves they should be “out the door”.

“I’ve no tolerance for people getting carried away and making a nuisance of themselves, and if they are going to argue with the chair then they know the results,” he said.

“I might have to be a little bit better than what I’ve been. I don’t like upsetting people but I like to say it as it is. I am at the age – the over 70s – where I’m just past the stage of worrying about things.”

Cllr Trevor Dance said: “It is interesting in this report that 90 percent of residents [who expressed a preference] didn’t support this at all. It doesn’t suggest they don’t understand it…

“It always worries me when council want to put something extra in the governance rules for some alternative reason when it is already covered under the local government act.

“We go to community consultation for a reason, to hear what the community says. If we don’t accept what the community says then it makes a mockery of public consultation. I don’t think we have ever had public consultation where 90 percent said they don’t agree.”

Cllr Jodi Jackson said council officers published a report (agenda PDF) on the item without giving councillors a clear recommendation.

“That is highly unusual,” she said. “I have many questions as to why that may be. 

“I note that councillor Moore has assisted the officers in choosing to proceed with one part of the proposal over another. But I feel that flies in the face of the very strong views that have been expressed by our residents.

“The suggestion that residents may not have understood the proposal is frankly, offensive.”

Mayor and meeting chair Naim Kurt said he would give sufficient warnings before exercising his right to remove a councillor from a meeting.